Translation:
Make not your hand tied 2212 (like a niggard´s) to your neck, nor stretch it forth to its utmost reach, so that you become blameworthy and destitute.
Make not your hand tied 2212 (like a niggard´s) to your neck, nor stretch it forth to its utmost reach, so that you become blameworthy and destitute.
Translation:
And neither allow thy hand to remain shackled to thy neck, 35 nor stretch it forth to the utmost limit [of thy capacity], lest thou find thyself blamed [by thy dependants], or even destitute.
And neither allow thy hand to remain shackled to thy neck, 35 nor stretch it forth to the utmost limit [of thy capacity], lest thou find thyself blamed [by thy dependants], or even destitute.
Commentary:
35 A metaphor signifying miserliness and, in particular, unwillingness to help others (cf. a similar expression in 5:64).
35 A metaphor signifying miserliness and, in particular, unwillingness to help others (cf. a similar expression in 5:64).
2212 Cf. the phrase for miserliness in 5:64. We are not to be so lavish as to make ourselves destitute and incur the just censure of wise men, nor is it becoming to keep back our resources from the just needs of those who have a right to our help. Even strangers have such a right, as we saw in 17:26 above. But we must keep a just measure between our capacity and other people's needs.