Exodus 22:25-27 - Exposition

The law of lending money and borrowing . It is peculiar to the Jewish law to forbid the lending of money at interest by citizen to citizen. In the present passage, and in some others (Le Exodus 25:35 ; Deuteronomy 15:7 ), it might seem that interest was only forbidden in the case of a loan to one who was poor; but the general execration of usury ( Job 24:9 ; Proverbs 28:8 ; Ezekiel 18:13 ; Ezekiel 22:12 ), and the description of the righteous man as "he that hath not given his money upon usury" ( Psalms 15:5 ; Ezekiel 18:8 ), seem rather to imply that the practice, so far as Israelites were concerned, was forbidden altogether. On the other hand, it was distinctly declared ( Deuteronomy 23:20 ) that interest might be taken from strangers. There does not seem to have been any rate of interest which was regarded as excessive, and "usurious," in the modern sense. In Scripture usury means simply interest.