Exodus 22:26

garment mantle (Heb. salmâh), the large rectangular piece of cloth described in the note on Exodus 12:34; perhaps the only article that a poor man would have to offer as a pledge, as well as his only covering by night (v.27). The mantle might be retained by the debtor, in order that he might sleep in it himself: see Deuteronomy 24:12. A garment was a common pledge: see not only Amos 2:8; Job 22:6, already quoted, but also Proverbs 20:16 = Proverbs 27:13. The poor still sleep in Palestine in their ordinary clothes (L. and B.i. 54, 99, iii. 89); cf. Shaw, Travels in Barbary and the Levant(1738), p. 290 (cited by Kn.).