Deuteronomy 10:19

Deu 10:19 Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Ver. 19. Love ye therefore the stranger.] And to show yourselves the friends of God. For idem velle et idem nolle, ea demum vera amictia est. {a} Friends are like-minded.

{a} Cicero.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu_10:19

Ye were strangers.

The strangers claim

In both Jewish and Christian economy special kindness was to be shown to the stranger.

I. The strangers claim does not rest upon any doctrine of abstract right, but upon the disadvantage of his position. He can hardly be said to have any right at all. He is a foreigner. He comes uninvited. He seeks only his own advantage. Why should I befriend him? He is seeking only to make his own way, and to secure a footing, probably at my cost, or that of my neighbour. Besides, it is impossible to befriend him without risk. Nothing is known of his history or his character. Why did he leave the place where he was known? If he couldnt succeed there, why should he expect to succeed here? The very fact that he had to come among strangers and start life afresh is a reason for caution and reserve. All this is true. Why should you trouble about him? Yet you must trouble. And the simple reason is, that his strangeness places him at a terrible disadvantage. In the Old Testament he is always classed with the widow and the orphan. They are the defenceless class. And because they are an easy prey of cunning and wickedness, God makes special provision for them. He comes into a community ignorant of all the well-established order of its life. The common places of their life are novelties to him. What an object for fleecing! The sailor on shore, and Young Evergreen on the turf, are striking examples of the readiness with which the simple-minded stranger falls a victim to wily and wicked men. The same thing happens in business and society. Most people regard it as quite the proper thing to make the stranger pay for his experience, and do not scruple to take advantage of his ignorance. The glory of our Jehovah is that He is the Defence and Champion of the helpless and oppressed. The world bullies the widow, exploits the poor, and considers the stranger fair game for plunder. But God says, My people shall protect the weak, provide for the poor, and show kindness to the stranger. One reason why they were to show kindness to the stranger was because he is especially sensitive to first impressions. His loneliness and comparative helplessness lay him open to the first influences that come upon him. He is ready to enter any door that opens. How much depends upon those first influences! He will form his estimate of the new community from the people who first get hold of him. The strangers first impressions of Israel would be gathered from his first experiences among them. First impressions last. God was jealous for His name among the heathen and the stranger. The stranger is nervous, uncertain, apprehensive. He is easily offended, and apt to see slights where they do not exist. But he is just as easily pleased, and responds readily to kind and sympathetic interest. I am persuaded our churches have suffered great loss in our towns and cities through their neglect of the stranger. It would be safe to affirm that no church prospers that is not mindful of the stranger. Forget not to show love unto the stranger. He is altogether a pathetic figure. Often behind him is a history full of tragedy; his heart is sore, sometimes even unto breaking; always he is in need of kindly and helpful sympathy.

II. Our duty to the stranger. Our duty runs along the line of his need. The Old Testament law protects him against oppression, wrong, and vexation. No advantage was to be taken against him. But they were not to stand aloof, and let him severely alone. They must deal hospitably with him. He with the poor was to have the gleanings of the field, that he might secure his daily bread. In the New Testament the hospitality is extended. To care for the stranger was one of the marks of Christian character (Rom_12:13; 1Ti_5:10). He was to be treated both in the Old and New Covenant as home-born, and admitted to the privileges of national and social life (Lev_19:33-34). The reason for such generous treatment was three fold.

1. The strangers need. That in itself ought to be sufficient. The Good Samaritan does not stop to inquire into the merits of the man naked and bleeding on the roadside. His need is a sufficient passport to sympathy. Philanthropy in the guise of a detective is a very poor thing. The large-hearted pity of Jesus did not wait for a certificate of merit and respectability before it healed the sufferer or fed the hungry. The strangers hunger is for brotherliness, rather than bread. Feed him, then, out of the fulness of your heart.

2. Ye know the heart of a stranger. One would think such would need no exhortation to be considerate to strangers. The remembrance of a fellow feeling ought to make them kind. But it does not. The cruellest slave driver is the man who has been a slave. Suffering unsanctified by grace does not soften and sweeten; it hardens and sours. But the law ought to hold good. If suffering does not make us appreciate the troubles of those who may afterwards be passing through the same experience, what can we appreciate? We are comforted of God, that we in turn may comfort others in like affliction. We have all been strangers, for we began life as the little stranger. Recall your experiences, and when you see a stranger, do unto him as you would that others should have done unto you.

3. God loves the stranger. The Lord your God is God of gods, the Lord of lords, a great God,. . .and loveth the stranger. Love ye therefore the stranger (Deu_10:17-19). The love of God overflows the boundaries of the elect. It compasses the heathen as well as the Israelite. Be ye imitators of God. Because God loves him, you must love him for God sake. This motive is greatly strengthened in Jesus Christ. For His sake we are debtors unto all men. For His sake we must take up our cross and crucify the flesh with its narrow affections and selfish lust. In the stranger you may find an angel. Not that every stranger is an angel. Some are sharks. You are not asked to abandon the ordinary rules of prudence and common sense. There is all the difference in the world between being kind to a stranger and making him your bosom friend straight off. But in the stranger there are great possibilities. When God gave His great promise unto Israel, we are told they were few men in number, yea, very few, and strangers in the land (Psa_105:11-12). Only a few feeble strangers, but heirs of a great promise. Angels have a trick of dwelling in unsuspected places; they delight to travel in disguise, and be entertained unawares. In the stranger you may find appreciation and gratitude. St. Luke tells us that when Jesus healed ten lepers none returned to express their thanks, save only he who was a Samaritan and a stranger (Luk_17:18). In the stranger you may find more than an angel. You may find in him your Lord. At the last day you will be surprised to find you have been ministering not unto a needy brother, but to the Lord Jesus Christ. I was a stranger, and ye took me in. (S. Chadwick.)

Experience a stimulus to generosity

Diderot rose on Shrove Tuesday morning and groping in his pocket found nothing wherewith to keep that day, which he spent wandering about Paris and its precincts. He was ill when he got back to his quarters, went to bed and was treated by his landlady to a little toast and wine. That day, he told a friend in after life, I swore that if ever I came to have anything, I would never in my life refuse a poor man help, never condemn a fellow creature to a day so painful. (Francis Jacox.)

Kindness to a stranger

A Pittsburgh pastor writes: It was at the close of the evening service last Sunday that, according to my wont, I stepped down from the pulpit and moved towards the door to greet old friends and welcome strangers. Presently there stood before me a shy, intelligent-looking lad, who grasped my hand with so much cordiality that, looking him in the face, I said, What is your name? Do you live somewhere near by? My name, said he, with a charming accent, is John Silas. I do not live here, I work at the K-- Hotel. How did you find your way here? I looked for you many days, responded the boy; I come from Germany one year ago--no father, no mother. I meet you one night, you preached at W-- (one of our suburbs); you shook hands with me, and said you were glad to see me, and Ive been looking for your church ever since. The incident deeply touched several who were standing by, and hospitality to strangers will seem to us all more valuable than ever before.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 10:19. Love ye, therefore, the stranger — Be kind and just even to Gentile strangers, as to fellow-creatures of the same frame with yourselves, in honour to your common Creator, and in imitation of that tender care which he exercises over the sons of men.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(19) For ye were strangers.—“The blemish which is upon thyself thou shalt not notice in thy neighbour” (Rashi). The provision made for the stranger throughout the Old Testament Scriptures has another cause besides: “For I was a stranger, and ye gathered me in.” (See a Sermon on “The Stranger” in Silver Sockets, and other Shadows of Redemption.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. Love ye the stranger] This carries the principle further than it is expressed in Exo_22:21, and even almost as far as Christ carried it. Cp. P, Lev_19:33.

for ye were strangers] So Exo_22:21 (editorial) and frequently in D.

20–11:1. Resumption of the Sg. address in possible, but not necessary, continuation of Deu_10:14-15. Deu_10:20 naturally suggests the opening of Deu_10:21, and is therefore not to be taken as a later intrusion because it repeats Deu_6:13 (Steuern.).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Love ye therefore the stranger,.... Because the Lord loves him; and another reason follows, particularly binding on the Israelites:

for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt; and therefore should sympathize with such, and show them compassion, relieve them in distress, and afford them whatever they want, and is in the power of their hands to communicate to them; remembering their own condition in Egypt, and how welcome such a treatment would have been to them then, as well as the kind and careful providence of God towards them at that time.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Love the stranger.

The precept has numerous applications

I TO LITERAL STRANGERS. Persons from foreign countries, or from distant parts of our own country, settling in our midst. Why should these be treated so often as intruders, "incomers," persons to be jealously watched and suspected, instead of being taken by the hand and welcomed?

II TO THE UNFRIENDED AND HELPLESS. To all whose hearts are lonely, and their lives destitute of the cheer given by the love and sympathy of friends. To the fatherless and the widow strangers in a very true sense m a world where selfish interests so hugely predominate.

III TO YOUNG MAN IS GREAT CITIES. Often lost for lack of some one to take a kindly interest in them.

IV TO STRANGERS TURNING UP IN CHURCHES. Coldness here repels many who might otherwise be won to interest in religion, and secured for Christ. Brotherly and friendly attention, a kind word, the warm shake of a hand, the courteous offer of a pew, how far will they often go? They are, like "good words," worth much, and cost little.

Show kindness to strangers:

1. Because they peculiarly need it. "The heart of a stranger.

2. Because God loves them. He will avenge their wrongs. He will reward kindness shown to them. (Mat_25:35)

3. We may be placed in similar circumstances. Changes in fortune. J.O. (Rth_1:19-22)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

כי גרים הייתם [LOVE THE STRANGER] FOR YE WERE STRANGERS — Do not reproach thy fellow man for a fault which is also thine (cf. Rashi on Exodus 22:20; Bava Metzia 59b).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

FOR YE WERE STRANGERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. “Do not reproach your fellow man with a fault which is also in you.” This is Rashi’s language. I have already explained it in the section And these are the ordinances.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.