Fraudulent Beggars

The following is from Matthew Poole's commentary on Ecclesiastes 11:3, edited and modernized.

Matthew Poole (1624–1679) provides helpful insight regarding the question of whether or not one should give to the poor, in light of the fact that some merely pose as beggars, who are yet well off, and others ask for money to buy necessities like food, yet end up using it to indulge in sinful pleasures, instead.

If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.

Ecclesiastes 11:3

If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: learn, O man, the practice of liberality from the very lifeless creatures, from the clouds; which when they are filled with water, do not hoard it up, or keep it to themselves, but plentifully pour it forth for the refreshment both of the fruitful field and of the barren wilderness.

In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be: these words contain either:

1. An argument to persuade men to charity, because they must shortly fall or die, and then all opportunity of being charitable will be lost, and they must expect certainly and eternally to reap whatsoever they have sown, whether it has been mercy or unmercifulness. Or rather,
2. An answer to a common objection against it, because we are not certain whether the person who desires our charity really needs it, or is worthy of it. To this he answers, as a tree when it falls, either by the violence of the wind, or being cut down by its owner's order, it is not considerable whether it falls southward or northward, for there it lies ready for the master's use; so your charity, though it may possibly be misapplied by you or abused by the receiver, yet being conscientiously given by you, it shall assuredly return to you, and you shall reap the fruit of it.