Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you. Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you. You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor. Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers. Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves. You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.
If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest. If you take your neighbor's cloak as collateral, return it to him by sunset, because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? And if he cries out to Me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
Significance
Exodus 22:25-27 prohibits charging interest (נֶשֶׁךְ, neshekh) to the poor and requires returning pledged garments before sunset. Leviticus 25:35-43 integrates these protections within the Jubilee system, prohibiting both interest and profit (תַרְבִּית, tarbit) on loans to impoverished Israelites and requiring that a brother who sells himself into service be treated as a hired worker, not a slave. Leviticus grounds both prohibitions in the exodus: "They are My servants whom I brought out of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves" (Lev 25:42). The progression from Exodus's specific case laws (interest prohibition, garment pledge) to Leviticus's comprehensive economic theology (no Israelite may be permanently impoverished because God owns them all) represents a deepening of the humanitarian principles underlying the earlier legislation.
Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Longitudinal Theme
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