Discovery BoxNehemiah 5:7
Context5:7 I considered these things carefully 1 and then registered a complaint with the wealthy 2 and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral 3 from your own countrymen!” 4 Because of them I called for 5 a great public assembly.
Exodus 22:25-27
Context22:25 “If you lend money to any of 6 my people who are needy among you, do not be like a moneylender 7 to him; do not charge 8 him interest. 9 22:26 If you do take 10 the garment of your neighbor in pledge, you must return it to him by the time the sun goes down, 11 22:27 for it is his only covering – it is his garment for his body. 12 What else can he sleep in? 13 And 14 when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.
Psalms 15:5
Context15:5 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.
Ezekiel 18:8
Context18:8 does not engage in usury or charge interest, 18 but refrains 19 from wrongdoing, promotes true justice 20 between men,
Ezekiel 18:13
Context18:13 engages in usury and charges interest. Will he live? He will not! Because he has done all these abominable deeds he will certainly die. 21 He will bear the responsibility for his own death. 22
[5:7] 1 tn Heb “my heart was advised upon me.”
[5:7] 3 tn Heb “taking a creditor’s debt.” The Hebrew noun מַשָּׁא (masha’) means “interest; debt” and probably refers to the collateral (pledge) collected by a creditor (HALOT 641-42 s.v.). This particular noun form appears only in Nehemiah (5:7, 10; 10:32); however, it is related to מַשָּׁאָה (masha’ah, “contractual loan; debt; collateral”) which appears elsewhere (Deut 24:10; Prov 22:26; cf. Neh 5:11). See the note on the word “people” at the end of v. 5. The BHS editors suggest emending the MT to מָשָׂא (masa’, “burden”), following several medieval Hebrew
[5:7] 4 tn Heb “his brothers.”
[22:25] 6 tn “any of” has been supplied.
[22:25] 7 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] 9 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).
[22:26] 10 tn The construction again uses the infinitive absolute with the verb in the conditional clause to stress the condition.
[22:26] 11 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] 13 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] 14 tn Heb “and it will be.”
[15:5] 15 sn He does not charge interest. Such an individual is truly generous, and not simply concerned with making a profit.
[15:5] 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.
[15:5] 17 tn Heb “does these things.”
[18:8] 18 sn This law was given in Lev 25:36.
[18:8] 19 tn Heb, “turns back his hand.”
[18:8] 20 tn Heb “justice of truth.”
[18:13] 21 tn Heb “be put to death.” The translation follows an alternative reading that appears in several ancient textual witnesses.
