22:25 “If you lend money to any of 1 my people who are needy among you, do not be like a moneylender 2 to him; do not charge 3 him interest. 4
23:19 You must not charge interest on a loan to your fellow Israelite, 5 whether on money, food, or anything else that has been loaned with interest. 23:20 You may lend with interest to a foreigner, but not to your fellow Israelite; if you keep this command the Lord your God will bless you in all you undertake in the land you are about to enter to possess.
5:1 Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. 6 5:2 There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain 7 grain in order to eat and stay alive.” 5:3 There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.” 5:4 Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king 8 on our fields and our vineyards. 5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, 9 and our children are just like their children, 10 still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. 11 Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, 12 since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” 13
5:6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. 14
15:5 He does not charge interest when he lends his money. 15
He does not take bribes to testify against the innocent. 16
The one who lives like this 17 will never be upended.
1 tn “any of” has been supplied.
2 sn The moneylender will be demanding and exacting. In Ps 109:11 and 2 Kgs 4:1 the word is rendered as “extortioner.”
3 tn Heb “set.”
4 sn 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).
5 tn Heb “to your brother” (likewise in the following verse). Since this is not limited to actual siblings, “fellow Israelite” is used in the translation (cf. NAB, NASB “countrymen”).
6 tn Heb “their brothers the Jews.”
7 tn Heb “take” (so also in v. 3).
8 tn Heb “for the tax of the king.”
9 tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”
10 tn Heb “like their children, our children.”
11 tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).
12 tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.
13 sn The poor among the returned exiles were being exploited by their rich countrymen. Moneylenders were loaning large amounts of money, and not only collecting interest on loans which was illegal (Lev 25:36-37; Deut 23:19-20), but also seizing pledges as collateral (Neh 5:3) which was allowed (Deut 24:10). When the debtors missed a payment, the moneylenders would seize their collateral: their fields, vineyards and homes. With no other means of income, the debtors were forced to sell their children into slavery, a common practice at this time (Neh 5:5). Nehemiah himself was one of the moneylenders (Neh 5:10), but he insisted that seizure of collateral from fellow Jewish countrymen was ethically wrong (Neh 5:9).
14 tn Heb “words.”
15 sn He does not charge interest. Such an individual is truly generous, and not simply concerned with making a profit.
16 tn Heb “a bribe against the innocent he does not take.” For other texts condemning the practice of a judge or witness taking a bribe, see Exod 23:8; Deut 16:19; 27:25; 1 Sam 8:3; Ezek 22:12; Prov 17:23.
17 tn Heb “does these things.”