Bede : The Lord makes poor and makes rich, etc. Those whom He makes poor and humble in spirit for their own sake in the present, He makes rich in Himself in the future and exalts. — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : 18. The rich of this world therefore glory in their abundant wealth, because by the high and incomprehensible judgment of God, heavenly goods are hidden from them. The Lord therefore makes the poor, because while He reveals eternal goods to the elect, they consider themselves the poorer insofar as they see themselves driven from true riches. Whence also that king who was most abundant in worldly possession, because the Lord had shown him true riches, cried out to Him, saying: Look upon me and have mercy on me, for I am alone and poor (Psalms 24:16). Hence the prophet Jeremiah, expressing in himself the illumination of each of the elect, says: I am the man who sees my poverty (Lamentations 3:1). For the Lord to make poor is therefore to rouse the minds of the elect, in the contemplation of everlasting goods, to contempt for all visible things. But since to the one to whom He reveals the highest things He also indicates that these same highest things must be sought through the prolonged price of labor, let it say that He who makes poor also enriches, because assuredly while we receive from Almighty God the knowledge of heavenly goods, from Him also we obtain the strength to strive with worthy labor for them. And well is it added: He humbles and He lifts up. 19. Because in the contemplation of heavenly things they perceive how lowly they are on earth, but in that same lowliness of temporal want, through the grace of God, they lift themselves on the wings of their merits to the joys of everlasting life. They therefore receive humility in the estimation of their exile, but sublimity in the preparation of holy work. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 2, Chapter 1