Imamat 25:35-37

Debt and Slave Regulations

25:35 “‘If your brother ¹  becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, ²  you must support ³  him; he must live ⁴  with you like a foreign resident. ⁵  25:36 Do not take interest or profit from him, ⁶  but you must fear your God and your brother must live ⁷  with you. 25:37 You must not lend him your money at interest and you must not sell him food for profit. ⁸ 

Nehemia 5:2-7

5:2 There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain ⁹  grain in order to eat and stay alive.” 5:3 There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.” 5:4 Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king ¹⁰  on our fields and our vineyards. 5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ¹¹  and our children are just like their children, ¹²  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ¹³  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ¹⁴  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ¹⁵ 

5:6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. ¹⁶  5:7 I considered these things carefully ¹⁷  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ¹⁸  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ¹⁹  from your own countrymen!” ²⁰  Because of them I called for ²¹  a great public assembly.

¹ tn It is not clear to whom this refers. It is probably broader than “sibling” (cf. NRSV “any of your kin”; NLT “any of your Israelite relatives”) but some English versions take it to mean “fellow Israelite” (so TEV; cf. NAB, NIV “countrymen”) and others are ambiguous (cf. CEV “any of your people”).

² tn Heb “and his hand slips with you.”

³ tn Heb “strengthen”; NASB “sustain.”

⁴ tn The form וָחַי (vakhay, “and shall live”) looks like the adjective “living,” but the MT form is simply the same verb written as a double ayin verb (see HALOT 309 s.v. חיה qal, and GKC 218 §76.i; cf. Lev 18:5).

⁵ tn Heb “a foreigner and resident,” which is probably to be combined (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170-71).

⁶ tn The meaning of the terms rendered “interest” and “profit” is much debated (see the summaries in P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 354-55 and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 178). Verse 37, however, suggests that the first refers to a percentage of money and the second percentage of produce (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 421).

⁷ tn In form the Hebrew term וְחֵי (vÿkhey, “shall live”) is the construct plural noun (i.e., “the life of”), but here it is used as the finite verb (cf. v. 35 and GKC 218 §76.i).

⁸ tn Heb “your money” and “your food.” With regard to “interest” and “profit” see the note on v. 36 above.

⁹ tn Heb “take” (so also in v. 3).

¹⁰ tn Heb “for the tax of the king.”

¹¹ tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”

¹² tn Heb “like their children, our children.”

¹³ tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).

¹⁴ tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.

¹⁵ sn The poor among the returned exiles were being exploited by their rich countrymen. Moneylenders were loaning large amounts of money, and not only collecting interest on loans which was illegal (Lev 25:36-37; Deut 23:19-20), but also seizing pledges as collateral (Neh 5:3) which was allowed (Deut 24:10). When the debtors missed a payment, the moneylenders would seize their collateral: their fields, vineyards and homes. With no other means of income, the debtors were forced to sell their children into slavery, a common practice at this time (Neh 5:5). Nehemiah himself was one of the moneylenders (Neh 5:10), but he insisted that seizure of collateral from fellow Jewish countrymen was ethically wrong (Neh 5:9).

¹⁶ tn Heb “words.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “my heart was advised upon me.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “nobles.”

¹⁹ 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 MSS; however, the result is not entirely clear: “you are bearing a burden, a man with his brothers.”

²⁰ tn Heb “his brothers.”

²¹ tn Heb “I gave.”