Exodus 22:26-27

22:26 If you do take ¹  the garment of your neighbor in pledge, you must return it to him by the time the sun goes down, ²  22:27 for it is his only covering – it is his garment for his body. ³  What else can he sleep in? ⁴  And ⁵  when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

[22:26]  ¹ tn The construction again uses the infinitive absolute with the verb in the conditional clause to stress the condition.

[22:26]  ² tn The clause uses the preposition, the infinitive construct, and the noun that is the subjective genitive – “at the going in of the sun.”

[22:27]  ³ tn Heb “his skin.”

[22:27]  ⁴ tn Literally the text reads, “In what can he lie down?” The cloak would be used for a covering at night to use when sleeping. The garment, then, was the property that could not be taken and not given back – it was the last possession. The modern idiom of “the shirt off his back” gets at the point being made here.

[22:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it will be.”