Exo 22:25-26 | NETfull | STEP | “If you lend money to any of my people who are needy among you, do not be like a moneylender to him; do not charge him interest.

Exodus 22:25-26

25 “If you lend money to any of ^{▼▼ “any of” has been supplied.} my people who are needy among you, do not be like a moneylender ^{▼▼ The moneylender will be demanding and exacting. In Ps 109:11 and 2 Kgs 4:1 the word is rendered as “extortioner.”} to him; do not charge ^{▼▼ Heb “set.”} him interest. ^{▼▼ In ancient times money was lent primarily for poverty and not for commercial ventures (H. Gamoran, “The Biblical Law against Loans on Interest,” JNES 30 [1971]: 127-34). The lending to the poor was essentially a charity, and so not to be an opportunity to make money from another person’s misfortune. The word נֶשֶׁךְ (neshekh) may be derived from a verb that means “to bite,” and so the idea of usury or interest was that of putting out one’s money with a bite in it (See S. Stein, “The Laws on Interest in the Old Testament,” JTS 4 [1953]: 161-70; and E. Neufeld, “The Prohibition against Loans at Interest in the Old Testament,” HUCA 26 [1955]: 355-412).} 26 If you do take ^{▼▼ The construction again uses the infinitive absolute with the verb in the conditional clause to stress the condition.} the garment of your neighbor in pledge, you must return it to him by the time the sun goes down, ^{▼▼ The clause uses the preposition, the infinitive construct, and the noun that is the subjective genitive – “at the going in of the sun.”}