Deuteronomy 24:20

20 When you shake the olives off your trees, don't go back over the branches and strip them bare - what's left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.

Deuteronomy 24:20 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 24:20

When thou beatest thine olive tree
With sticks and staves, to get off the olives when ripe:

thou shall not go over the boughs again;
to beat off some few that may remain; they were not nicely to examine the boughs over again, whether there were any left or not:

it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow;
who might come into their oliveyards after the trees had been beaten, and gather what were left.

Deuteronomy 24:20 In-Context

18 Don't ever forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there. I command you: Do what I'm telling you.
19 When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don't go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that God, your God, will bless you in all your work.
20 When you shake the olives off your trees, don't go back over the branches and strip them bare - what's left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.
21 And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don't take every last grape - leave a few for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.
22 Don't ever forget that you were a slave in Egypt. I command you: Do what I'm telling you.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.