1He adds to those already mentioned another wise precept, not to show pity to the poor man in giving judgement. And this comes from one who has filled practically his whole legislation with injunctions to show pity and kindness, who issues severe threats against the haughty and arrogant and offers great rewards to those who feel it a duty to redress the misfortunes of their neighbours and to look upon abundant wealth not as their personal possession but as something to be shared by those who are in need.
2For what one of the men of old aptly said is true, that in no other action does man so much resemble God as in showing kindness, and what greater good can there be than that they should imitate God, they the created Him the eternal?
3So then let not the rich man collect great store of gold and silver and hoard it at his house, but bring it out for general use that he may soften the hard lot of the needy with the unction of his cheerfully given liberality. If he has high position, let him not show himself uplifted with boastful and insolent airs, but honour equality and allow a frank exchange of speech to those of low estate. If he possesses bodily vigour, let him be the support of the weaker and not as men do in athletic contest take every means of battering down the less powerful, but make it his ambition to share the advantage of his strength with those who have none of their own left to brace them.
4All who have drawn water from wisdom’s wells banish a grudging spirit from the confines of the mind and needing no bidding save their own spontaneous instinct gird themselves up to benefit their neighbours and pour into their souls through the channel of their ears the wordstream which may make them partakers of their own knowledge. And when they see young people gifted by nature like fine thriving plants, they rejoice to think that they have found some to inherit the spiritual wealth which is the only true wealth. They take them in hand and till their souls with the husbandry of principles and doctrines until on their full grown stems they bear the fruit of noble living.
5Such gems of varied beauty are interwoven in the laws, bidding us give wealth to the poor, and it is only on the judgement seat that we are forbidden to show them compassion. Compassion is for misfortunes, and he who acts wickedly of his own free will is not unfortunate but unjust.
6Let punishment be meted to the unjust as surely as honours to the just. And therefore let no cowering, cringing rogue of a poor man evade his punishment by exciting pity for his penniless condition. His actions do not deserve compassion, far from it, but anger. And therefore one who undertakes to act as judge must be a good money changer, sifting with discrimination the nature of each of the facts before him, so that genuine and spurious may not be jumbled together in confusion.
7There is much else which might be said about false witnesses and judges, but to avoid prolixity we must proceed to the last of the ten Great Words. This, which like each of the rest was delivered in the form of a summary, is “Thou shalt not covet.”