She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
Ver. 20. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor.] She laboureth with her hands to that purpose, Eph 4:28 and findeth by experience that not getting but giving is the way to thrive. See my Common Place of Alms.
Yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.] ‘Nittily needy,' as one phraseth it. To those that are extremely poor she not only stretcheth but reacheth, not her hand only, but both hands; yea, she hath her almoners to give to those that she cannot go to, as Queen Anne Boleyn had. a For, besides what she dealt and distributed by the hands of others, she carried ever about her a certain little purse; out of which she was wont to scatter about daily some alms to the needy, thinking no day well spent wherein some man had not fared the better by some benefit at her hands. The like is told of Placilla, wife to the Emperor Theodosius, that for her courtesy and bounty to the poor she was called φιλοπτωχως, The poor man's friend.
a Acts and Mon., fol. 957.