Keluaran 22:21-22

22:21 “You must not wrong ¹  a foreigner ²  nor oppress him, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

22:22 “You must not afflict ³  any widow or orphan.

Keluaran 22:25

22:25 “If you lend money to any of ⁴  my people who are needy among you, do not be like a moneylender ⁵  to him; do not charge ⁶  him interest. ⁷ 

Keluaran 23:6

23:6 “You must not turn away justice for your poor people in their lawsuits.

[22:21]  ¹ tn Or “oppress.”

[22:21]  ² tn Or “alien,” both here and in 23:9. This individual is a resident foreigner; he lives in the land but, aside from provisions such as this, might easily be without legal rights.

[22:22]  ³ tn The verb “afflict” is a Piel imperfect from עָנָה (’anah); it has a wide range of meanings: “afflict, oppress, humiliate, rape.” These victims are at the mercy of the judges, businessmen, or villains. The righteous king and the righteous people will not mistreat them (see Isa 1:17; Job 31:16, 17, 21).

[22:25]  ⁴ tn “any of” has been supplied.

[22:25]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “set.”

[22:25]  ⁷ 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).