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Leviticus 25:35-38
The focus shifts to poverty relief, commanding support for a struggling kinsman and banning interest, grounded by a reminder of deliverance.
Meaning in context
The focus shifts to poverty relief, commanding support for a struggling kinsman and banning interest, grounded by a reminder of deliverance.
Section 5 of 6
Supporting the poor without interest
The focus shifts to poverty relief, commanding support for a struggling kinsman and banning interest, grounded by a reminder of deliverance.
Movement
Life before the holy God
Artifact
Priestly instruction and sacred space
Biblical Timeline
Exodus & Settlement
Leviticus context: 1500 BC - 1000 BC
Biblical Timeline
Exodus & Settlement
Leviticus context
Exodus & Settlement / 1500 BC - 1000 BC
Leviticus context is set in the exodus and settlement period, where Moses, the exodus, wilderness, covenant instruction, conquest, and judges.
Scripture Text
Thesis
The focus shifts to poverty relief, commanding support for a struggling kinsman and banning interest, grounded by a reminder of deliverance.
Verse by Verse
Recognize collapse and actively support If a “brother” becomes poor and his “hand” fails while he is still among you, you must “uphold” him. The goal is that he can continue living with you, described like a resident outsider (“stranger” and “sojourner”)—someone allowed to stay and be sustained rather than pushed out.
Prohibit profit from need; state the purpose They must take no “interest” or “increase” from him. The command is tied to reverence toward God, and the stated purpose is practical: so that your brother may live with you.
Apply the prohibition to money and food The rule is restated with two concrete examples: do not give him money on interest, and do not supply food at a marked-up return (“for increase”). The repetition tightens the point: assistance should not be structured to generate gain from the borrower’s hardship.
Literary Context
These verses sit inside Leviticus 25’s instructions about the sabbatical and jubilee rhythms, where land, labor, and debt are handled in ways meant to prevent permanent loss and entrenched poverty. The immediate neighborhood includes rules about redeeming land, protecting family holdings, and releasing Israelites from long-term bondage. Within that flow, 25:35–38 addresses everyday economic crisis: when someone “with you” starts failing financially, the community’s response is not to extract gain but to stabilize his life in the community. The section ends with a reminder of Yahweh’s identity and past action, a recurring way Leviticus anchors commands in covenant history.
Historical Context
The setting assumed is an agrarian society where livelihood often depended on land access, harvest cycles, and short-term loans of silver or food to bridge hard seasons. A bad harvest, illness, or loss of labor could quickly push a household into debt and vulnerability. In the wider ancient Near East, interest-bearing loans were common and could lead to debt slavery or loss of property. Against that background, this command pictures an internal community responsibility: when an Israelite is sliding into poverty, others are to help without turning the crisis into a business opportunity. The appeal to the exodus and the gift of the land frames Israel’s economics as shaped by their shared story and shared location.
Theological Significance
Questions
Keep Studying
Ground the command in Yahweh’s identity and past action Yahweh identifies himself as Israel’s God, the one who brought them out of Egypt and gave them the land of Canaan. This frames the earlier commands as obligations owed within a relationship established by deliverance and settlement in the land.
Leviticus 25:35–38 speaks to what should happen when a fellow Israelite (“brother”) falls into poverty and can’t “keep going.” The text’s explicit aim is stability: the struggling person is to remain living “with you,” not pushed out or turned into a profit source. The community’s role is described as active support (“uphold him”), not mere sympathy.
The passage also states an explicit boundary: helpers must not take “interest” or “increase” from the needy brother, whether the help is money or food. The motive is framed as reverence toward God, and the grounding reason is covenant history: Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt and gave them the land.
“As a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with you” (v.35). Some read this as describing the poor person’s legal/social status—he becomes like a resident dependent within the community. Others read it as describing how he should be treated—you must make room for him to stay as securely as a protected resident.
“Interest” and “increase” (vv.36–37). Some think the two words point to different kinds of gain (for example, interest on money versus profit on goods/food). Others think the pairing is mainly emphatic, repeating the same idea in two ways to close loopholes.
Scope of the no-interest rule. Some limit it to crisis relief to prevent exploiting desperation. Others see it as a broader rule governing Israelite-to-Israelite lending in general, at least within the covenant community.
The wording combines overlapping economic terms (“interest…increase”) and uses a comparison phrase (“as a stranger and a sojourner”) that can be read either as a change in standing or as a description of protected residence. Also, the surrounding jubilee material concerns long-term economic reset, while these verses address immediate distress, so readers weigh local versus wider context differently.
usury (bə·ne·šeḵ)