Deuteronomy 15:11

Hebrew Bible

9 Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite and you do not lend him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be regarded as having sinned. 10 You must by all means lend to him and not be upset by doing it, for because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you attempt. 11 There will never cease to be some poor people in the land; therefore, I am commanding you to make sure you open your hand to your fellow Israelites who are needy and poor in your land. 12 If your fellow Hebrew—whether male or female—is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant go free. 13 If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed.

John 12:8

New Testament

6 (Now Judas said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money box, he used to steal what was put into it.) 7 So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She has kept it for the day of my burial. 8 For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me! 9 Now a large crowd of Judeans learned that Jesus was there, and so they came not only because of him but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too,

 Notes and References

"... This overall reduction in the number of poor people living in extreme poverty in the world has encouraged Sachs to argue that if the richer countries would offer financial assistance to the poorer countries to enable the poorer countries to get their “feet on the ladder of development” then the ensuing economic growth would lift all the poor people in the world out of the dire straits of extreme poverty by the year 2025. Furthermore, if this goal can be attained, then it can also be envisioned that if economic growth would continue, then even moderate poverty could be stamped out in the world. While the actualization of this noble goal remains in doubt, just the possibility of ending poverty in the world raises the question of whether such an outcome contradicts Deuteronomy 15:11 (This declaration is also recorded in Matthew 26:11, “The poor you will always have with you.” See also Mark 14:7 and John 12:8) ... This question is not just theoretical but also textual because the biblical text itself, just seven verses earlier, postulates that it is possible that there could be a world with no poor people, as Deuteronomy 15:4 states ..."

Schein, Andrew The Vision of Deuteronomy 15 with Regard to Poverty, Socialism, and Capitalism (pp. 251-259) Journal of Markets and Morality Vol. 9, No. 2, 2006

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