Text: Leviticus 25:35-43
OT Text Referred to: Exodus 22:25-27
Subject: lending laws and Jubilee debt framework
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme
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.