LOAN. The Mosaic laws which relate to the subject of borrowing, lending, and repaying, are in substance as follows :—If an Israelite became poor, what he desired to borrow was to be freely lent to him, and no interest, either of money or produce, could be exacted from him ; interest might be taken of a foreigner, but not of an Israelite by another Israelite (Exod. xxii. 25 ; Deut. xxiii. ig, 20; Lev. xxv. 35-38). At the end of every seven years a remission of debts was ordained ; every creditor was to remit what he had lent : of a foreigner the loan might be exacted, but not of a brother. If an Israelite wished to borrow, he was not to be refused because the year of remis sion was at hand (Deut. xv. -11). Pledges might be taken, but not as such the mill or the upper millstone, for that would be to take a man's life in pledge. If the pledge was raiment, it was to be given back before sunset, as being needful for a covering at night. The widow's garment could not be taken in pledge (Exod. xxii. 26, 27 ; Dent. xxiv. 6, 17). A part of the last pas sage we must cite entire, as showing a most ami able and considerate spirit on the part of Moses towanls the poor : When thou dost lend thv brother anythihg, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge ; thou shalt stand abroad, and tbe man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee ; and if the man be poor thou shalt not sleep with his pledge : in any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee ; and it shall be righteous ness unto thee before the Lord thy God.' The strong and impressive manner in which the duty of lending is enjoined, is worthy of being exhibited in the words of Scripture : If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren, thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thine hand front thy poor brother, but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him suffi cient for his need. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, the year of release is at hand, and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought, and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it' be sin unto thee : thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him ; because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thy hand unto.'
These laws relating to loans may wear a strange and somewhat repulsive aspect to the mere modern reader, and cannot be understood, either in their bearing or their sanctions, unless considered from the Biblical point of view. The land of Canaan (as the entire world) belonged to its Creator, but was given of God to the descendants of Abraham under certain conditions, of which this liberality to the needy was one. The power of getting loans therefore was a part of the poor man's inheritance. It was a lien on the land (the source of all property with agricultural people), which was as valid as the tenure of any given portion by the tribe or family to whose lot it had fallen. This is the light in which the Mosaic polity represents the matter, and in this light, so long as that polity retained its force, would it, as a matter of course, be regarded by the owners of property. Thus the execution of this particular law was secured by the entire force with which the constitution itself was recommended and sustained. I3ut as human selfishness might in time endanger this particular set of laws, so Moses ap plied special support to the possibly weak part. Hence the emphasis with which he enjoins the duty of lending to the needy. Of this emphasis the very essence is the sanction supplied by that special providence which lay a.t the very basis of the Mosaic commonwealth ; so that lending to the des titute came to be enforced with all the power de rivable from the express will of God, of the Almighty Creator, of the Redeemer of Israel, of Him whose favour was life, and whose frown was dismay and min.