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Hospitality


Hospitality

This has always been regarded by Eastern nations as a duty of the highest importance. Gen. 18:1–5; 19:1–3; Ex. 2:20; Judg. 13:15; 19:20–21 tell of instances of the readiness with which hospitality was offered to strangers. Such hospitality was a necessity of desert life. A host was bound at all cost to protect the life and property of his guest, even though previously unknown to him. To taste another man’s salt was to establish a claim on his protection. The New Testament enjoins the duty even more emphatically (Matt. 10:42; 25:43; Rom. 12:13; 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8; Heb. 13:2; 1 Pet. 4:9).