Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.
⛓ Read Proverbs 21 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion1
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.' James 2:13 says 'judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.' The lex talionis of mercy/mercilessness is closely paralleled.
Medium confidenceEcho3
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will himself cry and not be heard, linking refusal of compassion to severed relationship with God. This grounds John's rhetorical 'how does the love of God remain in him?' A close wisdom parallel to closing the heart against the needy.
Medium confidence'Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be answered' is the proverbial kernel of the parable: the servant who refuses his fellow's plea forfeits the mercy he had begged and received.
Medium confidence'Whoever shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be heard' anticipates the rich man's later unanswered cry from Hades after ignoring Lazarus at his gate. Coherence with the lex talionis of neglected mercy is real but the link is thematic, not verbal.
Low confidence