5 A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.
If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;) If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds. For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation? The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered. The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field. And thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.
I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.
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Commentary on Psalms 112 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Alphabetical Song in Praise of Those Who Fear God
The alphabetical Hallelujah Psalms 111:1-10, which celebrated the government of God, is now followed by another coinciding with it in structure ( CTYXOC KB , i.e., 22 στίχοι , as the Coptic version correctly counts), which celebrates the men whose conduct is ordered after the divine pattern.
As in the preceding Psalm. Psalms 112:1 here also sets forth the theme of that which follows. What is there said in Psalms 112:3 concerning the righteousness of God, Psalms 112:3 here says of the righteousness of him who fears God: this also standeth fast for ever, it is indeed the copy of the divine, it is the work and gift of God (Psalms 24:5), inasmuch as God's salutary action and behaviour, laid hold of in faith, works a like form of action and behaviour to it in man, which, as Psalms 112:9 says, is, according to its nature, love. The promise in Psalms 112:4 sounds like Isaiah 60:2. Hengstenberg renders: “There ariseth in the darkness light to the upright who is gracious and compassionate and just.” But this is impossible as a matter of style. The three adjectives (as in Psalms 111:4, pointing back to Exodus 34:6, cf. Psalms 145:8; Psalms 116:5) are a mention of God according to His attributes. חנּוּן and רחוּם never take the article in Biblical Hebrew, and צדּיק follows their examples here (cf. on the contrary, Exodus 9:27). God Himself is the light which arises in darkness for those who are sincere in their dealings with Him; He is the Sun of righteousness with wings of rays dispensing “grace” and “tender mercies,” Malachi 4:2. The fact that He arises for those who are compassionate as He is compassionate, is evident from Psalms 112:5. טוב being, as in Isaiah 3:10; Jeremiah 44:17, intended of well-being, prosperity, טּוב אישׁ is here equivalent to אשׁרי אישׁ , which is rendered טוּביהּ דּגברא in Targumic phrase. חונן signifies, as in Psalms 37:26, Psalms 37:21, one who charitably dispenses his gifts around. Psalms 112:5 is not an extension of the picture of virtue, but, as in Psalms 127:5 , a promissory prospect: he will uphold in integrity ( בּמשׁפּט , Psalms 72:2, Isaiah 9:7, and frequently), or rather (= בּמּשׁפּט ) in the cause (Psalms 143:2, Proverbs 24:23, and frequently), the things which depend upon him, or with which he has to do; for כּלכּל , sustinere , signifies to sustain, i.e., to nourish, to sustain, i.e., endure, and also to support, maintain, i.e., carry through. This is explanatorily confirmed in Psalms 112:6 : he stands, as a general thing, imperturbably fast. And when he dies he becomes the object of everlasting remembrance, his name is still blessed (Proverbs 10:7). Because he has a cheerful conscience, his heart too is not disconcerted by any evil tidings (Jeremiah 49:23): it remains נכון , erect, straight and firm, without suffering itself to bend or warp; בּטח בּה , full of confidence (passive, “in the sense of a passive state after a completed action of the person himself,” like זכוּר , Psalms 103:14); סמוּך , stayed in itself and established. The last two designations are taken from Isaiah 26:3, where it is the church of the last times that is spoken of. Psalms 91:8 gives us information with reference to the meaning of ראה בצריו ; עד , as in Psalms 94:13, of the inevitable goal, on this side of which he remains undismayed. 2 Corinthians 9:9, where Paul makes use of Psalms 112:9 of the Psalm before us as an encouragement to Christian beneficence, shows how little the assertion “his righteousness standeth for ever” is opposed to the New Testament consciousness. פּזּר of giving away liberally and in manifold ways, as in Proverbs 11:24. רוּם , Psalms 112:9 , stands in opposition to the egoistical הרים in Psalms 75:5 as a vegetative sprouting up (Psalms 132:17). The evil-doer must see this, and confounded, vex himself over it; he gnashes his teeth with the rage of envy and chagrin, and melts away, i.e., loses consistency, becomes unhinged, dies off ( נמס , 3d praet. Niph . as in Exodus 16:21, pausal form of נמס = נמס ). How often has he desired the ruin of him whom he must now see in honour! The tables are turned; this and his ungodly desire in general come to nought, inasmuch as the opposite is realized. On יראה , with its self-evident object, cf. Micah 7:10. Concerning the pausal form וכעס , vid., Psalms 93:1. Hupfeld wishes to read תּקות after Psalms 9:19, Proverbs 10:28. In defence of the traditional reading, Hitzig rightly points to Proverbs 10:24 together with Proverbs 10:28.