Ezekiel 18:7

18:7 does not oppress anyone, but gives the debtor back whatever was given in pledge, ¹  does not commit robbery, ²  but gives his bread to the hungry and clothes the naked,

Ezekiel 18:12

18:12 oppresses the poor and the needy, ³  commits robbery, does not give back what was given in pledge, prays to ⁴  idols, performs abominable acts,

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,

Exodus 22:26-27

22:26 If you do take ⁵  the garment of your neighbor in pledge, you must return it to him by the time the sun goes down, ⁶  22:27 for it is his only covering – it is his garment for his body. ⁷  What else can he sleep in? ⁸  And ⁹  when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

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. ¹⁰ 

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.

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 ¹⁶  from your brothers

for no reason,

and you stripped the clothing from the naked. ¹⁷ 

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 ¹⁸  from the breast, ¹⁹ 

the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge. ²⁰ 

Amos 2:8

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

they do so right ²¹  beside every altar!

They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied;

they do so right in the temple ²²  of their God! ²³ 

[18:7]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]).

[18:12]  ³ sn The poor and needy are often mentioned together in the OT (Deut 24:14; Jer 22:16; Ezek 14:69; Ps 12:6; 35:10; 37:14).

[18:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “lifts up his eyes.”

[22:26]  ⁵ tn The construction again uses the infinitive absolute with the verb in the conditional clause to stress the condition.

[22:26]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “his skin.”

[22:27]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “and it will be.”

[24:6]  ¹⁰ 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]  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).

[22:6]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn The verb with no expressed subject is here again taken in the passive: “they snatch” becomes “[child] is snatched.”

[24:9]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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.

[2:8]  ²¹ tn The words “They do so right” are supplied twice in the translation of this verse for clarification.

[2:8]  ²² tn Heb “house.”

[2:8]  ²³ 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).