You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.
KJV
Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.
Commentary
Commentary
Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury,.... Lend him money, expecting and insisting upon a large interest for it; this is to be understood of persons in poor and necessitous circumstances, of which the text only speaks; otherwise, if persons borrow money to gain by it, to carry on a greater trade, or to make purchase with it, it is but reasonable that the lender should have a share of profit arising from thence:
nor lend him thy victuals for increase; by which it should seem that those two words, used in
Lev 25:36
, though in the main they signify the same thing, yet may be distinguished, the one as concerning money, the other food; and which latter is not to be given by way of loan to a person in want of it, but freely; as for instance, if a man gives a poor man a bushel of wheat, on condition he gives him two for it hereafter, this is lending or giving his victuals for increase.
Commentary
Commentary