Moses — "You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in …"
You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.
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Details
From a commandment on charity (Deuteronomy 15:11).
Date: c. 13th Century BCE (Traditional)
PhilosophicalVerification
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Found in 1 providers: gemini
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Understanding this quote
What it means
This instruction commands people to be generous with those who lack resources in their community. Rather than closing yourself off or giving reluctantly, you should extend help openly and without hesitation to the poor and struggling among you. It treats generosity as a positive obligation, not a favor, and frames fellow members of society as 'brothers' deserving of care. Helping the needy is presented as a duty built into how communities should function.
Relevance to Moses
Moses delivered laws meant to shape Israelite society around justice and collective responsibility, not just personal piety. As the lawgiver who led former slaves out of Egypt, he understood poverty and dependence firsthand. This command fits his broader legal framework, which included gleaning rights, sabbatical debt release, and protections for widows and orphans. His leadership emphasized that a covenant people must reflect divine compassion through concrete economic obligations toward the vulnerable.
The era
In the ancient Near East around the 13th century BCE, most societies treated the poor as expendable, with debt slavery, landlessness, and famine common realities. Surrounding cultures had charity customs, but few codified structural protections for the needy into binding law. Israelite society was agrarian and tribal, where losing land meant losing survival. Mandating open-handed giving was radical, embedding welfare into religious law rather than leaving it to individual whim or royal benevolence in an often brutal era.
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