Thematic Bible: Usury or interest


Thematic Bible



" 'If you lend money [to] my people, [to] the needy with you, you will not be to him as a creditor; you will not {charge him interest}.

" 'And if your countryman becomes poor and {if he becomes dependent on you}, then you shall support him [like] an alien and [like] a temporary resident, and he shall live with you. You must not take interest or usury from him, but you shall revere your God, and your countryman shall live with you. You must not give your money to him with interest or give your food for profit.


He does not lend his money at interest, and does not take a bribe against [the] innocent. He who does these [things] will never be shaken.

[and] {he does not charge interest} and he takes no usury, [and] he holds back his hand from injustice [and] he executes judgment of fairness between {persons}, [and] in my statutes he goes about and my regulations he keeps, {performing faithfully} --[then] he is righteous, [and] certainly he will live," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.


Then you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and [when I] returned I would have gotten back [what was] mine with interest!

And why did you not give my money to the bank, and I, [when I] returned, would have collected it with interest?'


"{You shall not charge your brother interest on money}, interest on food, or interest on anything that one could lend on interest


You may lend on interest to the foreigner, but to your countryman you may not lend on interest, so that Yahweh your God may bless you {in all your undertakings} in {the land where you are going}, {in order to take possession of it}.


So I said, "The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God [to prevent] the disgrace from the nations, our enemies? Also, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please stop [taking] this interest. Please restore to them this day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, their houses, and the interest on the money, the grain, the grape juice, and the olive oil that you have been taking from them." read more.
So they said, "We will restore it and will not request [anything more]. So we will do as you say." Then I called the priests and made them take an oath to do this promise. I also shook out my garment and said, "This is how God will shake out everyone from his house who will not keep this promise. So this is how his possessions will be shaken out and emptied." And all the assembly said, "Amen!" And they praised Yahweh, and the people kept this promise.


You must not give your money to him with interest or give your food for profit.


I was very angry when I heard their shouts and these words. I thought over this in my heart, and then I quarreled with the nobles and the prefects. I said to them, "You yourselves are taking interest from your own brother!" So I called the great assembly against them,


Woe to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me, a man of contention and quarreling {to the whole land}. I have not lent out and {I have not borrowed}. All of them [are] cursing me.


Look! Yahweh [is] about to lay the earth waste and [is] about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants. And it shall be as [with] the people, so [with] the priest; as [with] the slave, so [with] his master; as [with] the female slave, so [with] her mistress; as [with] the buyer, so [with] the seller; as [with] the lender, so [with] the borrower; as [with] the creditor, so [with] [the one] to whom he lends.


Yahweh [is] their strength, and he [is] the refuge for the salvation of his anointed one.