Keluaran 22:26

22:26 If you do take ¹  the garment of your neighbor in pledge, you must return it to him by the time the sun goes down, ² 

Imamat 25:39-43

25:39 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. ³  25:40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; ⁴  he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 25:41 but then ⁵  he may go free, ⁶  he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. ⁷  25:42 Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale. ⁸  25:43 You must not rule over him harshly, ⁹  but you must fear your God.

Nehemia 5:3-5

5:3 There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.” 5:4 Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king ¹⁰  on our fields and our vineyards. 5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ¹¹  and our children are just like their children, ¹²  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ¹³  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ¹⁴  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ¹⁵ 

Ayub 22:6

22:6 “For you took pledges ¹⁶  from your brothers

for no reason,

and you stripped the clothing from the naked. ¹⁷ 

[22:26]  ¹ tn The construction again uses the infinitive absolute with the verb in the conditional clause to stress the condition.

[22:26]  ² tn The clause uses the preposition, the infinitive construct, and the noun that is the subjective genitive – “at the going in of the sun.”

[25:39]  ³ tn Heb “you shall not serve against him service of a slave.” A distinction is being made here between the status of slave and indentured servant.

[25:40]  ⁴ tn See the note on Lev 25:6 above.

[25:41]  ⁵ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.

[25:41]  ⁶ tn Heb “may go out from you.”

[25:41]  ⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

[25:42]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”

[25:43]  ⁹ tn Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”

[5:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for the tax of the king.”

[5:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”

[5:5]  ¹² tn Heb “like their children, our children.”

[5:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).

[5:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.

[5:5]  ¹⁵ sn The poor among the returned exiles were being exploited by their rich countrymen. Moneylenders were loaning large amounts of money, and not only collecting interest on loans which was illegal (Lev 25:36-37; Deut 23:19-20), but also seizing pledges as collateral (Neh 5:3) which was allowed (Deut 24:10). When the debtors missed a payment, the moneylenders would seize their collateral: their fields, vineyards and homes. With no other means of income, the debtors were forced to sell their children into slavery, a common practice at this time (Neh 5:5). Nehemiah himself was one of the moneylenders (Neh 5:10), but he insisted that seizure of collateral from fellow Jewish countrymen was ethically wrong (Neh 5:9).

[22:6]  ¹⁶ tn The verb חָבַל (khaval) means “to take pledges.” In this verse Eliphaz says that Job not only took as pledge things the poor need, like clothing, but he did it for no reason.

[22:6]  ¹⁷ tn The “naked” here refers to people who are poorly clothed. Otherwise, a reading like the NIV would be necessary: “you stripped the clothes…[leaving them] naked.” So either he made them naked by stripping their garments off, or they were already in rags.