Lending to the Poor

³⁵ ‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and ^[a]falls into poverty among you, then you shall ^(A)help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. ^36 (B)Take no usury or interest from him; but ^(C)fear your God, that your brother may live with you. ³⁷ You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit.

² For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”

³ There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”

⁴ There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. ⁵ Yet now ^(A)our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we ^(B)are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.”

⁶ And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. ⁷ After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, ^(C)“Each of you is ^[a]exacting usury from his brother.” So I ^[b]called a great assembly against them.