seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 24:10 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge. 11 Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. 12 If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession. 13 Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.
14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
More from the miscellaneous file. Here's the commentary from the easy English site.
The Israelites could lend money to the poor people. But they must not make the poor people pay extra money for that. However, they could take some kind of security. The security was usually the coat in which a person slept. The person who lent the money must not enter the home of the man with the debt. The person who lent the money could not choose a security. Instead, he must return the coat each night so that the poor man could be warm and comfortable. These laws show that God cares about people’s needs.
God wanted people to receive their wages. Employers used to pay their workers every day. If they did not pay them, the workers would call to God. God would consider that the employer was guilty. Moses told them that that would happen.
These laws about lending to the poor... they remind me of what Judge Judy asks all the time.... "why did you loan him money if you knew he couldn't pay it back?" Israelites could lend money to the poor but they had a couple rules. If a person only had a piece of cloth that he laid on at night as collateral.... the lender had to return it before nightfall everyday.... so that person would at least have that to sleep upon. How odd.....
