Prohibition on Charging Interest to a Fellow Israelite

The Prohibition on Charging Interest to a Fellow Israelite is a covenant rule that limits a lender’s claim on a fellow member of the community, making financial help a form of mutual responsibility rather than a source of interest income. It forbids interest on money, food, or any other loan between Israelites, while permitting interest on loans to a foreigner and associating the distinction with blessing in the land Israel is to possess.

The Rule and Its Scope

In the Covenant Code, the prohibition appears among instructions about lending to the poor and protecting a borrower’s necessities. A lender must not act as a creditor toward a poor member of the community or charge interest; if the borrower’s garment is taken as security, it must be returned before sunset because it is the borrower’s only covering for sleep.

Deuteronomy states the rule in broader terms: no interest may be charged to a fellow Israelite on money, food, or anything else lent at interest. It then draws an explicit boundary, allowing interest to be charged to a foreigner but not to a fellow member of the community.

Economic Obligation and Covenant

The rule treats a loan within the community differently from an exchange designed to produce a return. Its stated purpose is that the LORD may bless the people’s undertakings in the land they are about to possess; the prohibition therefore links economic conduct to Israel’s covenant life and future in the land.

Its placement alongside commands concerning the poor borrower’s garment gives the rule a practical dimension: lending must not deepen hardship by extracting interest or withholding an essential covering overnight. The text grounds this restraint in the LORD’s compassion and in the community’s obligations toward its own members.