[193] Yasts, xxiv. 37.
[194] Ibid. xi. 3.
[195] Shâyast Lâ-Shâyast, xii. 4. Cf. Bundahis, xxx. 28.
It seems that among the ancient Egyptians charity was considered no less meritorious.[196] “The god,” M. Maspero observes, “does not confine his favour to the prosperous and the powerful of this world; he bestows it also upon the poor. His will is that they be fed and clothed, and exempted from tasks beyond their strength; that they be not oppressed, and that unnecessary tears be spared them.”[197] In the memorial inscriptions, where the dead plead their good deeds, charity is often referred to. “I harmed not a child,” says one Egyptian, “I injured not a widow; there was neither beggar nor needy in my time; none were hungered, widows were cared for as though their husbands were still alive.”[198] In the inscription in honour of a lady who had been charitable to persons of her own sex, whether girls, wives, or widows, it is said, “The god rewarded me for this, rejoicing me with the happiness which he has granted me for walking after his way.”[199]
[196] Brugsch, History of Egypt under the Pharaohs, i. 29 sq. Tiele, History of the Egyptian Religion, p. 226 sq. Renouf, Hibbert Lectures on the Religion of Egypt, p. 72 sqq. Amélineau, L’évolution des idées morales dans l’Égypt Ancienne, pp. 145, 354.
[197] Maspero, Dawn of Civilization, p. 191. Cf. Schiapparelli, Del sentimento religioso degli antichi egiziani, p. 18; Amélineau, op. cit. p. 268.
[198] Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 253.
[199] Renouf, op. cit. p. 75.
Charity was urgently insisted upon by the religious law of the Hebrews.[200] “Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land”; “for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.”[201] Even “if thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: … the Lord shall reward thee.”[202] Especially in the Old Testament Apocrypha and in Rabbinical literature almsgiving assumed an excessive prominence—so much so that the word which in the older writings means “righteousness” in general, came to be used for almsgiving in particular.[203] “Shut up alms in thy storehouses: and it shall deliver thee from all affliction.”[204] “As water will quench a flaming fire, so alms maketh an atonement for sins.”[205] “For alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin. Those that exercise alms and righteousness shall be filled with life.”[206] The charitable man is rewarded with the birth of male issue.[207] Almsgiving is equal in value to all other commandments.[208] He who averts his eyes from charity commits a sin equal to idolatry.[209] To such an extreme was almsgiving carried on by the Jews, that some Rabbis at length decreed that no man should give above a fifth part of his goods in charity.[210]
[200] Deuteronomy, xiv. 29; xv. 7 sqq.; xvi. 11, 14. Leviticus, xix. 9 sq.; xxv. 35.