Deuteronomy 24:6

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 

Deuteronomy 24:10-13

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.

Deuteronomy 24:17

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.

Job 22:6

22:6 “For you took pledges ⁷  from your brothers

for no reason,

and you stripped the clothing from the naked. ⁸ 

Job 24:3

24:3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey;

they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.

Job 24:9

24:9 The fatherless child is snatched ⁹  from the breast, ¹⁰ 

the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge. ¹¹ 

Proverbs 20:16

20:16 Take a man’s ¹²  garment ¹³  when he has given security for a stranger, ¹⁴ 

and when he gives surety for strangers, ¹⁵  hold him ¹⁶  in pledge.

Proverbs 22:27

22:27 If you do not have enough to pay,

your bed ¹⁷  will be taken ¹⁸  right out from under you! ¹⁹ 

Ezekiel 18:7

18:7 does not oppress anyone, but gives the debtor back whatever was given in pledge, ²⁰  does not commit robbery, ²¹  but gives his bread to the hungry and clothes the naked,

Ezekiel 18:16

18:16 does not oppress anyone or keep what has been given in pledge, does not commit robbery, gives his food to the hungry, and clothes the naked,

Ezekiel 33:15

33:15 He ²²  returns what was taken in pledge, pays back what he has stolen, and follows the statutes that give life, ²³  committing no iniquity. He will certainly live – he will not die.

Amos 2:8

2:8 They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral;

they do so right ²⁴  beside every altar!

They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied;

they do so right in the temple ²⁵  of their God! ²⁶ 

[24:6]  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.

[24:10]  ² tn Heb “his pledge.” This refers to something offered as pledge of repayment, i.e., as security for the debt.

[24:11]  ³ tn Heb “his pledge.”

[24:12]  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.”

[24:13]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “by all means.”

[24:13]  ⁶ tn Or “righteous” (so NIV, NLT).

[22:6]  ⁷ tn The verb חָבַל (khaval) means “to take pledges.” In this verse Eliphaz says that Job not only took as pledge things the poor need, like clothing, but he did it for no reason.

[22:6]  ⁸ tn The “naked” here refers to people who are poorly clothed. Otherwise, a reading like the NIV would be necessary: “you stripped the clothes…[leaving them] naked.” So either he made them naked by stripping their garments off, or they were already in rags.

[24:9]  ⁹ tn The verb with no expressed subject is here again taken in the passive: “they snatch” becomes “[child] is snatched.”

[24:9]  ¹⁰ tn This word is usually defined as “violence; ruin.” But elsewhere it does mean “breast” (Isa 60:16; 66:11), and that is certainly what it means here.

[24:9]  ¹¹ tc The MT has a very brief and strange reading: “they take as a pledge upon the poor.” This could be taken as “they take a pledge against the poor” (ESV). Kamphausen suggested that instead of עַל (’al, “against”) one should read עוּל (’ul, “suckling”). This is supported by the parallelism. “They take as pledge” is also made passive here.

[20:16]  ¹² tn Heb “his garment.”

[20:16]  ¹³ sn Taking a garment was the way of holding someone responsible to pay debts. In fact, the garment was the article normally taken for security (Exod 22:24-26; Deut 24:10-13). Because this is a high risk security pledge (e.g., 6:1-5), the creditor is to deal more severely than when the pledge is given by the debtor for himself.

[20:16]  ¹⁴ tc The Kethib has the masculine plural form, נָכְרִים (nakhrim), suggesting a reading “strangers.” But the Qere has the feminine form נָכְרִיָּה (nakhriyyah), “strange woman” or “another man’s wife” (e.g., 27:13). The parallelism would suggest “strangers” is the correct reading, although theories have been put forward for the interpretation of “strange woman” (see below).

[20:16]  ¹⁵ tn M. Dahood argues that the cloak was taken in pledge for a harlot (cf. NIV “a wayward woman”). Two sins would then be committed: taking a cloak and going to a prostitute (“To Pawn One’s Cloak,” Bib 42 [1961]: 359-66; also Snijders, “The Meaning of זָר,” 85-86). In the MT the almost identical proverb in 27:13 has a feminine singular form here.

[20:16]  ¹⁶ tn Or “hold it” (so NIV, NCV).

[22:27]  ¹⁷ tn The “bed” may be a metonymy of adjunct, meaning the garment that covers the bed (e.g., Exod 22:26). At any rate, it represents the individual’s last possession (like the English expression “the shirt off his back”).

[22:27]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “If you cannot pay, why should he take the bed from under you?” This rhetorical question is used to affirm the statement. The rhetorical interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) appears in MT but not in the ancient versions; it may be in the Hebrew text by dittography.

[22:27]  ¹⁹ sn The third saying deals with rash vows: If people foolishly pledge what they have, they could lose everything (e.g., 6:1-5; 11:15; 17:18; 20:16; there is no Egyptian parallel).

[18:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “restores to the debtor his pledge.” The root occurs in Exod 22:25 in reference to restoring a man’s garment as a pledge before nightfall.

[18:7]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew term refers to seizure of property, usually by the rich (Isa 3:14; 10:2; Mic 2:2 [see Lev 5:21, 22]).

[33:15]  ²² tn Heb “the wicked one.”

[33:15]  ²³ tn Heb “and in the statutes of life he walks.”

[2:8]  ²⁴ tn The words “They do so right” are supplied twice in the translation of this verse for clarification.

[2:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “house.”

[2:8]  ²⁶ tn Or “gods.” The Hebrew term אֱלֹהֵיהֶם (’elohehem) may be translated “their gods” (referring to pagan gods), “their god” (referring to a pagan god, cf. NAB, NIV, NLT), or “their God” (referring to the God of Israel, cf. NASB, NRSV).