What does the Old Testament say about caring for the poor?

The Hebrew Bible addresses care for the poor across several books and through several distinct mechanisms — legal provisions, prophetic warning, and outright commands. Here is what the text actually says. Debt release (Deuteronomy 15) The seventh year cancels debts owed by fellow Israelites. The law is blunt about the temptation to avoid lending as that year approaches: “Beware that there not be a base thought in your heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you” (Deuteronomy 15:9) Gleaning laws (Deuteronomy 24) Farmers must not harvest everything. “When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow” (Deuteronomy 24:19) The same rule applies to olive groves and vineyards (Deuteronomy 24:20–21). Interest on loans to the poor (Leviticus 25) “Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you” (Leviticus 25:36) Prophetic enforcement (Malachi 3) Malachi frames neglect of the poor as grounds for divine judgment, listing among the condemned “those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice” (Malachi 3:5). The provisions are concrete: gleaned fields, cancelled debts, interest-free loans, wages paid before sundown (Deuteronomy 24:15). These are legal structures, not merely exhortations.