Texts in Conversation
Deuteronomy adds protection of the borrower's home to the pledge arrangements regulated by Hammurabi. Keeping the creditor outside preserves the poor person's dignity and choice, even when a debt gives someone else a claim on their goods.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Code of Hammurabi 1:72
Babylonian Legal Text
Ancient Near East
49 If anyone takes money from a merchant and gives the merchant a field fit for growing grain or sesame, and orders him to plant grain or sesame in the field and harvest the crop: if the cultivator plants grain or sesame in the field, then at the harvest the grain or sesame in the field belongs to the owner of the field, and he shall pay the merchant grain as rent for the money he received, along with the cost of the cultivator's upkeep. 50 If he hands over a field already planted with grain or sesame, the grain or sesame in the field belongs to the owner of the field, and he shall return the money to the merchant as rent.
Deuteronomy 24:10
Hebrew Bible
9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you left Egypt. 10 When you make any kind of loan to your neighbor, you may not go into his house to claim what he is offering as security. 11 You must stand outside and the person to whom you are making the loan will bring out to you what he is offering as security. 12 If the person is poor you may not use what he gives you as security for a covering. 13 You must by all means return to him at sunset the item he gave you as security so that he may sleep in his outer garment and bless you for it; it will be considered a just deed by the Lord your God.
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Notes and References
“... 24:10-15. regulations concerning a pledge. It was a common business practice in the ancient Near East for a person to “make a pledge” (i.e., offer as collateral) a portion of his property as a guarantee of paying off a debt or other financial obligation. For instance, the Code of *Hammurabi and *Hittite laws stipulate the pledging of land or planted fields. Hammurabi and *Middle Assyrian laws both deal with the legal rights of persons who have been taken in pledge for a debt. What is distinctive about the Deuteronomic law, as compared to the older version in the *covenant code (Ex 22:26-27), is its emphasis on protecting both the humanitarian rights and the personal honor of the debtor. Thus the creditor may not enter the debtor’s house to take an object in pledge. Instead, the debtor’s dignity is preserved by maintaining the sanctity of his personal dwelling and by giving him the opportunity to choose what will be offered. In this way the poor are treated on a par with all other Israelites. ...”
Walton, John H.
The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
(p. 198) 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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