as foreclosing on personal properties. It alludes to two reasons for debt:
crop failure and imperial taxation. The two stories also make clear the re-
sults of default. One may forfeit fields, orchards, and houses, and/or one
may end up in slavery.
The way imperial taxation burdens individuals and leads to debt was
anticipated in the way national taxes burdened people. When Israel asked
for stronger central government, the prophet Samuel warned them of the
burden that such government would be on them (1 Samuel 8:10–17).
Internationally, Habakkuk 2:6–7 warns about the way a major power
that has behaved like a creditor, accumulating pledges from weaker and
poorer countries, will in due course become the victim of its debtors. The
tables will be turned.
The passage in Exodus forbids Israelites to impose interest on poor
members of ‘‘my people’’ when lending them ‘‘money’’—literally silver, for
coinage was a development of the Persian period. The reference to the poor
indicates that the text does not refer to regular commercial loans.
In Moses’s (pp) teaching, Leviticus 25:35–37 expands on the point in
Exodus.
If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you,
you shall support them; they shall live with you as resident aliens.
Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from
them, but fear your God; let them live with you. You shall not lend
them your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them
food at a profit.The passage supports the ban on lending with interest by speaking of
the poor person as ‘‘your kin,’’ members of your family, and of the need to
‘‘revere God.’’
Professor Goldingay states that‘‘people who are doing well are
expected to lend freely to the needy and to accept payment in the form of
labor, or of the eventual repayment of the debt in money that the person
had earned through labor. So debtors would seek to work their way back to
solvency by committing themselves to indentured labor for a set period or to
paid employment in relation to someone who did have land—the equivalent
to getting a job, rather than the norm of being self-employed.’’^30
Another passage in Moses’s (pp) teaching makes explicit that people
must not impose interest on any form of loan, in money or in kind:
You shall not charge interest on loans to another Israelite, interest
on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent.
On loans to a foreigner you may charge interest, but on loans to28 THE ART OF ISLAMIC BANKING AND FINANCE