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Nehemiah condemns interest on relief loans in contrast to the commercial lending regulated by Hammurabi. A loan meant to help hungry neighbors defeats its purpose when the lender's profit leaves the borrower less able to survive.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Code of Hammurabi 1:101
Babylonian Legal Text
Ancient Near East
78 If a merchant lends grain at interest, he shall take one hundred ka of grain per gur as interest, a rate of one-third; if he lends silver at interest, he shall take thirty-six barleycorns per shekel of silver, a rate of one-fifth. 79 If a man who owes an interest-bearing loan has no silver to repay it, the merchant shall take grain and silver according to the royal edict, with interest for the year at sixty ka per gur; if the merchant tries to raise and collect the interest beyond one hundred ka of grain per gur, or beyond thirty-six barleycorns per shekel of silver, he forfeits whatever he lent.
Nehemiah 5:10
Hebrew Bible
9 Then I said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! Should you not conduct yourselves in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies? 10 Even I and my relatives and my associates are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral! 11 This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.” 12 They replied, “We will return these things, and we will no longer demand anything from them. We will do just as you say.” Then I called the priests and made the wealthy and the officials swear to do what had been promised.
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Notes and References
“... 5:7. usury. Usury in its purest sense was the charging of interest for a loan. An individual was forbidden to charge a fellow Israelite interest on a loan (see comments on Ex 22:25; Lev 25:38; and Deut 15:1-11). It was permissible, however, to charge a foreigner interest. Interest is mentioned as being permissible in the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (eighteenth century B.C.). However, these were commercial loans, and there was no counterpart in Israel. An Israelite loan was considered charity and was done to help a needy fellow countryman, not to help a merchant build up his business. ...”
Walton, John H.
The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
(p. 476) InterVarsity Press, 2000
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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