For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

DEUTERONOMY 15:11KJV
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Deuteronomy 15:11 (KJV)

What does Deuteronomy 15:11 mean?

Deuteronomy 15:11 says that people in need will continue to live among the Israelites, so the command to help them remains necessary. The verse directs each person to respond generously to a fellow Israelite who is poor or needy.

Moses presents this instruction as a command from God to Israel. The picture of opening the hand wide suggests giving freely rather than keeping a tight grip on what one has.

The Hebrew behind Deuteronomy 15:11

  • “open” and “wide” — פָּתַח (pataḥ): This word means “open.” The Hebrew repeats the word for emphasis, giving force to the command pictured in the KJV as “open thine hand wide.”
  • “brother” — אָח (aḥ): This word can mean a male sibling or a fellow member of a people. Here, “brother” places the person in need within the community of Israel.

Why Deuteronomy 15:11 matters

  • The statement that the poor will “never cease” sits alongside the earlier promise that there will be no poor among Israel if the people obey God’s commands (verses 4–5). Verse 11 addresses the continuing presence of need among them.
  • The command calls for a generous response before the seventh year of debt release, too. Verses 7–10 warn against refusing a loan because that year is near.
  • The verse connects generosity with the land Israel is to inhabit. “In thy land” places the command within the life the Israelites are about to establish there.

Where else these words appear

“cease” Hebrew H2308 · used in 56 verses

  • Genesis 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
  • 1 Samuel 2:5 They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
  • Job 19:14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

“poor” Hebrew H34 · used in 58 verses

  • Exodus 23:6 Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause.
  • Psalms 49:2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
  • Proverbs 31:9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

“poor” Hebrew H6041 · used in 78 verses

  • Exodus 22:25 If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.
  • Psalms 35:10 All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?
  • Ecclesiastes 6:8 For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?

“open” Hebrew H6605 · used in 133 verses

  • Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
  • Nehemiah 6:5 Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand;
  • Isaiah 14:17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?