Deuteronomy 14:26

Ver. 26. And thou shalt rejoice— See ch. Deuteronomy 12:7. This is no other than an injunction on the Hebrew nation to use one part of their income in hospitality; to rejoice in the goodness of God, when they came before his presence; to acknowledge that they owed all their blessings to his protection and favour; and to gladden the hearts of the poor, the fatherless, and the widow, with a cheerful entertainment; imitating the goodness of God to themselves, by such acts of kindness to others; ver. 29. But this was left entirely to the owner, and his good will, on what to spend it, and whom to entertain: it is therefore not unfitly called by the Hebrew writers, the tithe of feasts, and the poor man's tithe. See Lowman's Dissert. ch. 6. It is strange, that a religion, fraught with such merciful precepts, should ever have been stigmatised with the name of barbarous and inhospitable!