Proverbs 22:22
Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:
Rob not the poor, because he is poor,.... And cannot help himself; cannot go to law with him that has injured him, and defend his own cause; which the other knowing, is the more emboldened to spoil and defraud him, which is an aggravation of his sin: or, "for he is poor" {g}; to rob any man is an evil and an injurious thing; but to rob the poor is cruel and barbarous; rather something should be given them, and not anything taken from them: or, "though he is poor" {h}; let not that be an inducement to injure him, but the contrary;
neither oppress the afflicted in the gate; or "the poor" {i}; the same as before, only a different word used: when he comes into a court of judicature, which was usually held in the gates of a city, Ruth 4:1; and applies for redress of any grievance, do not crush him in the gate, or oppress him in judgment; nor wrest his cause, and do him wrong; but let him have justice done him, though poor. Some understand this of using the poor ill, when they come to their gates to beg; which sense is favoured by the Septuagint version; but the former is best. One might have expected, after such a preface or introduction as in the preceding verses, that something of more importance, something more spiritual and evangelical, would have followed: this shows the great regard the Lord has to the poor, and how much they are on his mind, and how near they lie to his heart; especially the poor of the flock, worried and spoiled by antichrist; see Zechariah 11:7.
{g} awx ld yk "nam tenuis est", so some in Mercerus.
{h} "Etsi"; so some in Mercerus; "quamvis", Lutherus.
{i} yne "inopem", Schtultens, so Cocceius; "pauperem", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.