thy heart shall not be sad when thou givest to him, because for this Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thy work, and in all that thou undertakest to do. For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command thee, "Thou shalt surely open thy hand to thy brother, to thy needy, and to thy poor in thy land.'

The older law of Exodus 2310, 11 provided that on the seventh year all the land should lie fallow and every Hebrew should be allowed to gather whatever it produced:

Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in its increase. The seventh year thou shalt let the land rest and lie fallow, that the poor of thy people may eat; and what they leave the wild beasts shall eat. In like manner thou shalt do with thy vineyard and thine oliveyard.

Here the right of every man to share in the natural resources of the earth is boldly asserted. Not as a gift nor as the result of another's labour, but as the fruit of his own efforts the man is given an opportunity to recoup his fortunes. The detailed plan is not practicable in our modern highly developed civilisation. It is not certain that it was ever rigidly carried out in Judah. The thirty-fourth chapter of Jeremiah indicates that the law of the seventh year of release was disregarded in the days immediately preceding the fall of Jerusalem. But the underlying principle, radical though it is, is well worthy of consideration when ninety per cent of a nation's vast wealth is hoarded in the hands of approximately one-fortieth of its population, while millions are herded together under living conditions that are morally and physically destructive of both character and life.

The same strenuous endeavour to prevent poverty and to give every man an opportunity to preserve his self-respect and to win a livelihood by his own labour underlies the law regarding the gleanings (Dt. 2419-22):

When thou reapest thy harvest in thy field, and hast forgotten a sheaf in thy field, thou shalt not go again to bring it; it shall be for the resident alien, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hands,

THE PREVENTION OF POVERTY

101 When thou beatest thy olive-tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the resident alien, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it after thee; it shall be for the resident alien, for the fatherless, and the widow. Thou shalt remember that thou wast a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command thee to do this thing.

In their active campaign against poverty the Deuteronomic lawgivers did not stop with external measures. They sagely advised their fellow countrymen to avoid all loans which would put them under the power of foreigners (Dt. 156b):

Thou shalt lend to many nations but thou shalt not borrow.

They encouraged honesty and industry and the fundamental moral virtues which are essential to the material prosperity of the individual and of the state. With superb optimism and conviction they declared that if the people proved loyal to these laws and ideals, poverty should indeed be banished from the land (Dt. 154, 5):

Nevertheless there shall be no poor with thee, for Jehovah will surely bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee to possess as an inheritance, if only thou diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to observe to do all these commands which I command thee this day.

Measures for the Alleviation of Poverty. The Deuteronomic lawgivers nowhere encourage indiscriminate giving. Their silence is significant. Their whole emphasis was on constructive rather than merely remedial charity. They set their ideal that "there shall be no poor with thee” in the forefront. The one measure which provided for direct giving was carefully guarded so that it could not be abused nor pauperise those whom it sought to benefit. One-thirtieth of every man's income was turned over to the local authorities of his village or city and was stored up to be used by them to supply the ing needs of those who had no regular income (Dt. 1428, 29, 2613):

press

At the end of every three years thou shalt bring out all the tithe of thine increase in that year and shalt deposit it within thy city. That the Levite, because he hath no portion nor inheritance with thee, and the resident alien, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are in thy city, may come and eat and be satisfied, in order that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in all the work to which thou puttest thy hand. And thou shalt say before Jehovah thy God, 'I have put away the consecrated things out of my house, and have also given them to the Levite, and to the resident alien, to the fatherless and to the widow, just as thou hast commanded me; I have not transgressed any of thy commands, neither have I forgotten them.'

The Characteristics of the Social Citizen. In the decalogue of Deuteronomy 514-21 and in the public liturgy of Deuteronomy 2717-24 every son of Israel is solemnly warned against committing the supremely unsocial crimes of murder, adultery, incest, theft, and bearing false testimony. A fine social idealism underlies the grim curses of Deuteronomy 2718, 19:

Cursed be the one who maketh the blind wander out of the way. And all the people shall say, 'So may it be.' Cursed be the one who perverteth the justice due the resident alien, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, 'So may it be.'

The truly social citizen is not only generous but considerate of the feelings of his neighbour (Dt. 2410, 11). Moreover, he is ever on the alert to guard against anything that will endanger the life of his fellow men (Dt. 228):

When thou buildest a new house, thou shalt make a parapet for thy roof that thou bring not blood upon thy house, in case any man should fall from it.

This law sets forth clearly and concisely the principle which in its modern application has found expression in the building, sanitary, and factory legislation that is one of the most hopeful indications of progress in our present civilisation.

THE SOCIAL CITIZEN

103

According to the Deuteronomic lawgivers, love is the crowning characteristic of the social citizen. Although a later lawgiver (Lev. 1918b) first formulated the command,

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,

the prophets who wrote Deuteronomy faithfully applied this principle. The author of Leviticus 1918b had simply in mind his fellow Israelites. The Deuteronomic lawgivers went even farther, for they laid down the noble command (Dt. 101o):

Love the resident alien.

They also recognised that love to man would be but a flickering flame if it was not inspired by a dominating love and loyalty toward God. Hence they repeatedly proclaimed that this love was the crowning characteristic of a social citizen (Dt. 65, cf. 111):

Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.

Love meant service, and to serve God was, in the thought of these experienced prophets, to make the principles of social justice and service which they had endeavoured to formulate the guide in every thought and act (Dt. 1012):

And now Israel, what doth Jehovah thy God require of thee but to fear Jehovah thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him and to serve Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul?

The Completeness of the Deuteronomic Social Code. Antiquity produced no other code of laws which in its completeness and lofty social idealism compares with that found in the book of Deuteronomy. Its underlying principles contribute to the solution of almost every problem of human society. Most of these principles are of far wider application than the specific cases with which they deal. They remain to-day the historic

foundations of that which is finest in our modern social legislation. Many of the standards that they set up still await complete acceptance. No one can claim that they present a perfect social system. Jesus rejected their toleration of divorce (Mk. 103-5). Their teaching regarding war (Dt. 20) strikes a much lower level than do the standards maintained by Amos (Am. 1) and Nahum (Nah. 2, 3). The explanation is found in their hot zeal to stamp out the earlier Canaanite cults that had been perpetuated by the remnants of the older population of Palestine and during the reign of Manasseh had gained the ascendancy even in Judah. The bitterness begotten by cruel persecution had hardened the otherwise tender hearts of these Deuteronomic lawgivers, so that, in theory at least, they could countenance the wholesale slaughter of those whom they regarded as traitors to their race and religion. Humanity had to wait long centuries before the great Teacher of Nazareth uttered the revolutionary command: "Love your enemies." At many points, however, the Deuteronomic codes anticipate the social teachings of Jesus. They mark a long advance toward the completion of that perfect social plan which was the culmination of more than twelve centuries of intense struggle and rich national experience.