The man whose eye sees the poor and whose hand gives them food receives the LORD's blessing.
A blessing on a particular kind of generosity comes in Proverbs 22:9: He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor (v. 9). The verse gives the act and the reason for the blessing.
He who is generous is, more literally, the man with a bountiful eye, the eye that sees others' need rather than only its own portion. The eye comes first because action follows seeing. A man who has trained his eye to notice the hungry will eventually share what he has.
He gives some of his food to the poor. The act is concrete: not abstract sympathy, but bread out of his own basket. Proverbs 19:17 names the deeper accounting: "He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD." Jesus extends the picture in Matthew 25:35 by identifying himself with the hungry and the stranger. The blessing rests on the generous man because he has lined up his eye, his hand, and his food with the way the LORD orders the world.
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Proverbs 22:9 meaning
A blessing on a particular kind of generosity comes in Proverbs 22:9: He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor (v. 9). The verse gives the act and the reason for the blessing.
He who is generous is, more literally, the man with a bountiful eye, the eye that sees others' need rather than only its own portion. The eye comes first because action follows seeing. A man who has trained his eye to notice the hungry will eventually share what he has.
He gives some of his food to the poor. The act is concrete: not abstract sympathy, but bread out of his own basket. Proverbs 19:17 names the deeper accounting: "He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD." Jesus extends the picture in Matthew 25:35 by identifying himself with the hungry and the stranger. The blessing rests on the generous man because he has lined up his eye, his hand, and his food with the way the LORD orders the world.