24:6 One must not take either lower or upper millstones as security on a loan, for that is like taking a life itself as security. 1
24:10 When you make any kind of loan to your neighbor, you may not go into his house to claim what he is offering as security. 2 24:11 You must stand outside and the person to whom you are making the loan will bring out to you what he is offering as security. 3 24:12 If the person is poor you may not use what he gives you as security for a covering. 4 24:13 You must by all means 5 return to him at sunset the item he gave you as security so that he may sleep in his outer garment and bless you for it; it will be considered a just 6 deed by the Lord your God.
24:17 You must not pervert justice due a resident foreigner or an orphan, or take a widow’s garment as security for a loan. 24:18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do all this. 24:19 Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there, 7 you must not return to get it; it should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow so that the Lord your God may bless all the work you do. 8 24:20 When you beat your olive tree you must not repeat the procedure; 9 the remaining olives belong to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow. 24:21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard you must not do so a second time; 10 they should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow.
1 sn Taking millstones as security on a loan would amount to taking the owner’s own life in pledge, since the millstones were the owner’s means of earning a living and supporting his family.
2 tn Heb “his pledge.” This refers to something offered as pledge of repayment, i.e., as security for the debt.
3 tn Heb “his pledge.”
4 tn Heb “may not lie down in his pledge.” What is in view is the use of clothing as guarantee for the repayment of loans, a matter already addressed elsewhere (Deut 23:19-20; 24:6; cf. Exod 22:25-26; Lev 25:35-37). Cf. NAB “you shall not sleep in the mantle he gives as a pledge”; NRSV “in the garment given you as the pledge.”
5 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “by all means.”
6 tn Or “righteous” (so NIV, NLT).
7 tn Heb “in the field.”
8 tn Heb “of your hands.” This law was later applied in the story of Ruth who, as a poor widow, was allowed by generous Boaz to glean in his fields (Ruth 2:1-13).
9 tn Heb “knock down after you.”
10 tn Heb “glean after you.”