Deuteronomy 24:20

20 When you beat off the fruit of your olive trees you shall not search through the branches afterward, for it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for 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 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and [that] Yahweh your God redeemed you from there; therefore I [am] commanding you to do this commandment.

19 "When you reap your harvest in your field and you forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not return to get it, for it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

20 When you beat off the fruit of your olive trees you shall not search through the branches afterward, for it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

21 When you harvest [grapes], you shall not glean your vineyards {again}; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

22 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, therefore I [am] commanding you to do this thing."

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, what is left