Lending: General Scriptures Concerning
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Exodus 22:25–27
If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest. / If you take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him by sunset, / because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? And if he cries out to Me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
Leviticus 25:35–37
Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you. / Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you. / You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.
Deuteronomy 15:1–11
At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. / This is the manner of remission: Every creditor shall cancel what he has loaned to his neighbor. He is not to collect anything from his neighbor or brother, because the LORD’s time of release has been proclaimed. / You may collect something from a foreigner, but you must forgive whatever your brother owes you.
Deuteronomy 23:19, 20
Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan. / You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess.
Deuteronomy 24:6, 10–13, 17
Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security. / When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect security. / be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before the LORD your God.
Nehemiah 5:1–13
About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. / Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous. We must get grain in order to eat and stay alive.” / Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine.”
Psalm 37:25, 26
I once was young and now am old, yet never have I seen the righteous abandoned or their children begging for bread. / They are ever generous and quick to lend, and their children are a blessing.
Psalm 112:5
It is well with the man who is generous and lends freely, whose affairs are guided by justice.
Proverbs 19:17
Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and He will repay the lender.
Proverbs 22:7
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
Proverbs 28:8
He who increases his wealth by interest and usury lays it up for one who is kind to the poor.
Isaiah 24:1, 2
Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants— / people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.
Ezekiel 18:13
He engages in usury and takes excess interest. Will this son live? He will not! Since he has committed all these abominations, he will surely die; his blood will be on his own head.
Matthew 5:42
Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Luke 6:34, 35
And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. / But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.