Exodus 22:25

Interest not to be taken on money lent to the poor.

as a creditor exacting and impatient: cf. 2 Kings 4:1; Psalms 109:11 (where the same word is rendered -extortioner").

usury interest. This was formerly the sense of -usury" (Lat. usura, something paid for the useof money); but the word is now restricted to exorbitant interest; the rendering has consequently become misleading. The taking of interest is prohibited also in Leviticus 25:36 f. (H), and Deuteronomy 23:19 f.: it is referred to also with disapproval in Ezekiel 18:8; Ezekiel 18:13; Ezekiel 18:17; Ezekiel 22:12; Proverbs 28:8; Psalms 15:5 (as what the model Israelite would not do). The same feeling against taking interest on money lent was entertained by Greek thinkers (see Plato, Legg.v. 742; Arist. Polit.i. 10. 5): it was also shared largely in the early Christian Church. Many good Christians, however, now put out their money on interest: what, then, is the cause of the change of feeling? The cause is to be found in the different purpose for which money is now lent. In modern times money is commonly lent for commercialpurposes, to enable the borrower to increase his capital and develope his business: and it is as natural and proper that a reasonable payment should be made for the accommodation, as that it should be made for this loan (i.e. the hire) of a house, or any other commodity. But this use of loans is a modern development: in ancient times money was commonly lent for the relief of poverty brought about by misfortune or debt; it partook thus of the nature of a charity; and to take interest on money thus lent was felt to be making gain out of a neighbour's need. The interest which ancient feeling condemned was thus not the interest taken on a commercialloan such as is taken habitually in the modern world, but the interest taken on a charitableloan, which only increases the borrower's distress. Be the feeling with which the ancients regarded allinterest is of course still rightly maintained against usuriousinterest, such as -money-lenders" often exact from those whom need drives into their hands. Cf. the remarks of Grote, Hist. of Greece, Part II., ch. xi., in connexion with the measures adopted by Solon at Athens for the relief of those who had borrowed money on the security of their own persons (cf. 2 Kings 4:1).