Rob not the poor, because he [is] poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:
Ver. 22. Rob not the poor, &c.] Here some caviller will be apt to cry out, Quid dignum tauto feret hic promissor hiatu? After so promising a preface, and such wooing of attention, we looked for some new matter, and that of best note too. But behold here is nothing but what we had before. It is truth, saith the wise man; and yet I must tell you, that "to write the same things, to me indeed is not grievons, but for you it is safe." Php 3:1 See the like in Psalms 49:1,3, &c. The scope of the psalm is to show the happy and secure estate of the saints in trouble, and the slippery condition of the wicked when at their height. Now whereas some might object and say, This is an ordinary argument, we have heard of it a hundred times; the Psalmist answers, that yet this is the great "wisdom" that he will speak of, and the "dark saying" that he will open. And hereunto he makes a solemn Oyez! - "Hear this, all ye people, and give ear all ye inhabitants of the world."
Because he is poor.] As the greater fish devour the lesser, and as the larger falls upon the cur and worries him, only because he is bigger than the other. This is a brutish ferity. See Psa 10:1-18 And if those that relieve not the poor shall be damned, surely they that rob them shall be double damned.
Neither oppress the afflicted.] The poor man must needs be an afflicted man, obnoxious to all manner of injuries and hard usages. But God, who is the poor man's king - more truly so called than James IV of Scotland was - takes order here, that no man oppress or wrong him, either at the gate of his house, whither he comes begging, or at the gate of the city, where he sues for redress of injury; let not might suppress right, lest some Cato complain, as once, and not without cause, that poor thieves sit in the stocks, when greater thieves sit on the seats of judicature. a
a Gel., lib. xi. cap. 18.