And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
Ver. 10. And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless] Widows and orphans are God's clients, taken into his special protection.
The stranger] Whose right is so sacred, saith one, that there was never nation so barbarous that would violate the same.
Nor the poor] Whose misery moves compassion without an orator. In the Low Countries they may not beg, but only look pitifully. To grind the faces of such is barbarous cruelty; to wrong them, or but wrangle with them, is called man-eating, Psalms 14:4 .
And let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart] For though you never act it, yet Fecit quisque quantum voluit, He does anything whatever he wished, saith Seneca. It is said, Joshua 24:9 "Balak arose and fought with Israel," and yet the story saith nothing so. Sed fieri dicitur quod tentatur aut intenditur, saith Ribera upon Amos 9:5. He did not, because he dared not; yet he is said to have done it because he had a mind to do it. A man may die of an inward bleeding; so of heart sins, which are maioris reatus, greater guilt, as we see in devils, though outward sins are maioris infamiae, greater dishonour, as the schools well observe.