Rabbi Isaac on the Usurer and Esau the False Almsgiver

Rabbi Isaac interpreted the verse with regard to one who lends to an Israelite at interest, and whose eye was grudging to lend to him without interest, "and he does not know that want will come upon him" (Proverbs 28:22), as it is written: "He who increases his wealth by interest and usury gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor" (Proverbs 28:8). Who is "him who is gracious to the poor"? This is Esau the Wicked. But is Esau the Wicked gracious to the poor? Is he not rather an oppressor of the poor? He is like those overseers who go out to the villages and plunder their tenant-farmers, and then come into the city and say, "Gather in the poor, for we wish to perform a religious duty with them." The adage says: She commits adultery for apples and distributes them to the sick (that is to say: the harlot buys apples and distributes them to the sick).