Exodus 22:25

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 

Leviticus 25:36

25:36 Do not take interest or profit from him, ⁵  but you must fear your God and your brother must live ⁶  with you.

Deuteronomy 15:2-3

15:2 This is the nature of the cancellation: Every creditor must remit what he has loaned to another person; ⁷  he must not force payment from his fellow Israelite, ⁸  for it is to be recognized as “the Lord’s cancellation of debts.” 15:3 You may exact payment from a foreigner, but whatever your fellow Israelite ⁹  owes you, you must remit.

Deuteronomy 23:19-20

Respect for Others’ Property

23:19 You must not charge interest on a loan to your fellow Israelite, ¹⁰  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.

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. ¹¹  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. ¹²  24:12 If the person is poor you may not use what he gives you as security for a covering. ¹³  24:13 You must by all means ¹⁴  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 ¹⁵  deed by the Lord your God.

Psalms 15:1

Psalm 15 ¹⁶ 

A psalm of David.

15:1 Lord, who may be a guest in your home? ¹⁷ 

Who may live on your holy hill? ¹⁸ 

Psalms 15:5

15:5 He does not charge interest when he lends his money. ¹⁹ 

He does not take bribes to testify against the innocent. ²⁰ 

The one who lives like this ²¹  will never be upended.

Ezekiel 22:12

22:12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; ²²  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, ²³  declares the sovereign Lord. ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 45:9

45:9 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction, and do what is just and right. Put an end to your evictions of my people, ²⁵  declares the sovereign Lord.

[22:25]  ¹ tn “any of” has been supplied.

[22:25]  ² sn The moneylender will be demanding and exacting. In Ps 109:11 and 2 Kgs 4:1 the word is rendered as “extortioner.”

[22:25]  ³ tn Heb “set.”

[22:25]  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).

[25:36]  ⁵ tn The meaning of the terms rendered “interest” and “profit” is much debated (see the summaries in P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 354-55 and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 178). Verse 37, however, suggests that the first refers to a percentage of money and the second percentage of produce (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 421).

[25:36]  ⁶ tn In form the Hebrew term וְחֵי (vÿkhey, “shall live”) is the construct plural noun (i.e., “the life of”), but here it is used as the finite verb (cf. v. 35 and GKC 218 §76.i).

[15:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “his neighbor,” used idiomatically to refer to another person.

[15:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “his neighbor and his brother.” The words “his brother” may be a scribal gloss identifying “his neighbor” (on this idiom, see the preceding note) as a fellow Israelite (cf. v. 3). In this case the conjunction before “his brother” does not introduce a second category, but rather has the force of “that is.”

[15:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “your brother.”

[23:19]  ¹⁰ 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”).

[24:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his pledge.” This refers to something offered as pledge of repayment, i.e., as security for the debt.

[24:11]  ¹² tn Heb “his pledge.”

[24:12]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “by all means.”

[24:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or “righteous” (so NIV, NLT).

[15:1]  ¹⁶ sn Psalm 15. This psalm describes the character qualities that one must possess to be allowed access to the divine presence.

[15:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Who may live as a resident alien in your tent?”

[15:1]  ¹⁸ sn In this context the Lord’s holy hill probably refers to Zion/Jerusalem. See Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 43:3; 48:1; 87:1; Dan 9:16.

[15:5]  ¹⁹ sn He does not charge interest. Such an individual is truly generous, and not simply concerned with making a profit.

[15:5]  ²⁰ 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.

[15:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “does these things.”

[22:12]  ²² tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.

[22:12]  ²³ sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.

[22:12]  ²⁴ tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.

[45:9]  ²⁵ sn Evictions of the less fortunate by the powerful are described in 1 Kgs 21:1-16; Jer 22:1-5, 13-17; Ezek 22:25.