Leviticus 23:22

THE LAW OF CHARITY, Leviticus 23:22.

22. The corners of thy field This provision for the poor was more ample than the Authorized Version shows. The borders of the field were to be left. How wide a border, was to be determined by the owner, thus affording scope for the exercise of his benevolent affections, or for the manifestation of avarice. In Deuteronomy 24:19, the overlooked sheaf is mercifully set apart for the needy gleaners. Thus the spirit of unselfish love, the very essence of Judaism and Christianity, was carefully enjoined upon the Israelites.

The stranger This term signifies about the same as our expression “naturalized foreigner,” inasmuch as it implies a certain political status in the country in which he resides. The civil rights of the stranger were not very accurately defined. That he was eligible to all civil offices except that of king we infer from Deuteronomy 17:15, on the principle that the prohibition of the greater is not a prohibition of the less. In Leviticus 25:23, Jehovah says to his people, “The land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.” This plainly implies that the stranger could not be a landowner. This fact will account for his poverty. The landless, as a class, must ever be on the borders of starvation. The origin of these “aliens to the covenant” is evident. They were the remnant of the Canaanites, “the mixed multitude” which accompanied Israel from Egypt, captives taken in war, political refugees, fugitive slaves, hired servants, and merchants. The census of them in Solomon’s time gave a return of one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred males, about a tenth of the whole population. 2 Chronicles 2:17. They were required not to infringe any fundamental law of the State, such as relates to the sabbath, the hal-lowed Name, food during passover, marriage laws, worship of Moloch, and eating blood. They could offer sin offerings, and enjoy the blessings of the day of atonement. The enactments of the Mosaic law respecting resident aliens were conceived in a spirit of liberality which is not surpassed by any of the most enlightened Christian nations of modern times.