Poor, poverty.

Poverty is called that condition of a person in which he is not able to satisfy the necessary needs of life. Although the Promised Land, conquered by the Hebrews, according to the words of the sacred writer, flowed with milk and honey, yet the poor and needy were always found among Israel, by the word of the prophet (Deut. 15:4, 6; John 12:8). The causes of poverty were quite various: increase of population, ruinous wars, physical calamities of the land, moral causes, the increase of vice, the growth of luxury, and so on.

But all the poor among Israel, widows and orphans, were not only under the defense and protection of the law and enjoyed the charity of private persons, but the law itself made certain provisions in their favor, such as: every poor person was permitted, to satisfy hunger, to gather grapes in another’s vineyard, to pluck ears of grain in another’s field, only it was not permitted to carry away a whole cluster of grapes in a vessel, or to reap ears with a sickle (Deut. 23, 24, and so on).

At harvest time it was required not to reap to the very edge of the field, and not to gather up a forgotten sheaf in the field; the remaining ears and fruits were left for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger (Lev. 19:9 and following; Deut. 24:19). Ruth went to glean ears of grain in the reaped fields (Ruth 2:2, 3). A special provision concerning the poor and strangers was made for the sabbatical year and the jubilee, when their hereditary lands were returned to them, and they again entered into their lawful rights.

Under threat of the terrible punishment of God, the law also warns the Israelites against the oppression and afflicting of strangers and the poor (Exod. 22:21, 22; Lev. 19:33, 34), and especially against oppression and injustice in judgment (Exod. 23:3–6; Lev. 19:15). At the feast of unleavened bread, of weeks, and of tabernacles, three times a year, the Jews, by the law, were obligated to share their family celebration with slaves, strangers, widows, and orphans, each according to his ability (Deut. 16:10–17).

In later times, however, the poor and needy among the Jews were very numerous; they could be seen everywhere along the roads and in the streets. The praiseworthy deed of charity to the poor is especially depicted in the Book of Tobit (2:14), and in Sirach (3:30 and others). “Water will quench a flaming fire,” says the latter, “and alms maketh an atonement for sins.”