#biblical “usury” meaning charging interest in loaning - not EXCESSIVE interest but ANY interest

[adrianastrix]

The reason why I'm so adamant about separating "earning money from your work" from "capitalism" is, firstly, that capitalism spreads the lie that "money = capitalism, so capitalism exists since money was invented and will exist until money fades out", making it look way more universal and strong that it actually is (capitalism is actually a development from 18th century free market ideology meeting freaking colonialism, so it's very recent and has a very spotty past).

But what gets me is that this association of capitalism with money, salaries and trading makes it so every time an artist sees how screwed we all are by this system and denounces it, they lock themselves out of financial support. Everyone start to spew vitriol about how you shouldn't take money since you hate capitalism so much, like the two things are equivalent.

You know what kind of people think that someone asking for payment in exchange for a service is fundamentally greedy, it doesn't matter how reasonable the price is?

Slave. Owners.

They are the ones who think every service should be provided for people who HAVE to work for them whenever they want, however degrading it might be, and for NO PAY WHATSOEVER. And that providing those workers with the bare minimum food and shelter instead of letting them die and buying new slaves is charity.

In every non-slave society, it IS expected that goods and services will be traded for fair rates. Criticizing capitalism has nothing to do with buy or selling things, it has nothing to do with believing that money, or trading, or advertising shouldn't exist. It has to do with criticizing a system that treat workers like uppity slaves that should be happy that they get a ridiculously low salary for brutal hours of work and aren't legally bound 24/7 to the whims of their employer anymore. What more should they want??? After all, if they get more money and free time they will blow it all in drugs and depravities anyway. Hey, y'all, are we sure those people shouldn't be legally bound 24/7 to the whims of their employer? For their own good?

So, by all means. Charge whatever you want to charge (or DON'T charge if you don't want to), buy iPhones, advertize like crazy and criticize capitalism at every single corner. The only ones who are hypocrites when they criticize capitalism are the capitalist themselves.

(And "capitalists" aren't all bosses. Capitalists are bosses who don't have to work. They make their whole living from the profits of other people's work (i.e., the capital). They are people who live from the interest the bank pays for their inheritance money, or from the rent paid by their 5 or more tennants, or from loaning some money to a company - "investing" on it - on a non-limited interest rate, siphoning that company's profits like crazy without ever lifting a finger to make it better. Sometimes, actively making it worse by imposing ridiculous conditions for their loan... *cough* investment. What, you thought interest in investments come from thin air, like magic? It's thinly disguised loan-sharking, my guys.

Your boss that will be broken in the streets if their bakery/youtube channel/print service fails isn't a capitalist, they are just a commoner providing goods and services like you, and they are in for a rude awakening if they think they can get away with acting like the local lord on the long run.)

[frederickwiddowson]

Exodus 22:25-31 comments: the Israelites' civil law continued

Exodus 22:25 ¶  If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. 26  If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: 27  For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious. 28  Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people. 29 Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. 30  Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me. 31  And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.

A usurer lends money at interest.

Leviticus 25:36  Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. 37  Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.

This wasn’t our current understanding of usury of excessive interest but as it stood in pre-Capitalist Christian nations and in Islam the charging of any interest at all as a profit on money. The interest on money lent was a great source of social unrest in Ancient Rome as farmers would go further and further into debt to ease the burden of bad harvests until they lost their farms. In this way, and others, large landowners could accrue massive landholdings. Our modern banking and finance system would not exist without charging a profit or interest on money lent.

This is not like investing in a merchant’s trip to a foreign country and expecting a share of the profits but the bondage of being constantly in debt to interest charged. In America, during the colonial era before there were any commercial banks, most loans were private arrangements between individuals.

So, the difference is, if I invest in your farm or your business and expect to share in the profitability that is not usury. If I loan you money and expect a profit on the return of that money that would have been considered usury, for instance, as it was considered in England before Henry VIII’s rule in the 1500s. Economics, particularly finance, can be quite complex so I apologize for oversimplifying the subject.

Hebrews were forbidden to charge interest to each other. Imagine that. They could charge foreigners, though.

Deuteronomy 23:19  Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury: 20  Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

I’ve read that other ancient Near Eastern cultures permitted the charging of interest allowing for wealth to be consistently gathered into fewer and fewer hands. Here represents another distinct separation of the Hebrews from those around them.

The common person had few articles of clothing and would often have to sleep in the clothes they wore during the day. Keeping collateral on a loan, if it was a person’s only outer clothing they needed for warmth at night, was not permitted past sundown.

Verse 28 is very significant. It is quoted in the exchange between Paul and his accusers.

Acts 23:1 ¶  And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. 2  And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. 3  Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? 4  And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God’s high priest? 5  Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.

It is also important as it acknowledges that there are spiritual beings that exist and are allowed a certain power; like the gods of Egypt.

1Corinthians 8:4 ¶  As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. 5  For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) 6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

A Christian would do well not to curse or challenge Satan, the god of this world as per 2Corinthians 4:4. We are to resist him as per James 4:7. We would look well to the Biblical example of requesting God to rebuke him.

Jude 1:8 ¶  Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9  Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 10  But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

We would do well not to curse or revile beings whom we do not know or understand. The preacher who openly challenges Satan virtually pleads for his congregation to be attacked by him. The Christian who pleads some power against Satan would do well to depend on and trust in God as we know from the book of Job that Satan can do nothing without God’s permission constrained by the limits set forth by God. Even if Satan were bound and inactive we would still have our flesh trying to dominate us. Satan is not the author of your sin. You are.

The Hebrews were to give the first of the produce of the land, the juice extracted from it, and to consecrate their firstborn to God. There will be more on this in Exodus but notice the following.

Deuteronomy 26: 1 ¶  And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein; 2 That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there. 3  And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the LORD thy God, that I am come unto the country which the LORD sware unto our fathers for to give us. 4  And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God. 5  And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: 6  And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: 7  And when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression: 8  And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: 9  And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. 10  And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God: 11  And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.

   12 ¶ When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; 13  Then thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them: 14  I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me. 15  Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

We saw in chapter 13 that the firstborn were to be sanctified.

Liquor simply means juice. The juice of a fruit is its liquor as defined in the Early Modern English of the King James Bible era. John Baret’s 1574 dictionary entitled An Alveary or Triple Dictionary, in English, Latin, and French has the following entry;

“Juice – all kind of liquor whether it be wine or water, oile or other…”[1]

The offering of oxen and sheep was to take place after eight days with a beast’s mother. The eighth day is a significant time in Bible reckoning for sanctification and offering, setting something or someone apart for God. The Hebrew week was seven days, God’s number of completion after the seven days of creation.

Note the following verses;

Leviticus 9:1  And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel…12:3  And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised…14:10  And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil…14:23  And he shall bring them on the eighth day for his cleansing unto the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the LORD…15:14  And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before the LORD unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and give them unto the priest…15:29  And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation…22:27  When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam; and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the LORD…23:36  Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein…23:39  Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

Numbers 6:10  And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation…7:54  On the eighth day offered Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, prince of the children of Manasseh…29:35  On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly: ye shall do no servile work therein:

1Kings 8:66  On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.

2Chronicles 7:9  And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days…29:17  Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

Nehemiah 8:18  Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.

Ezekiel 43:27  And when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord GOD.

Luke 1:59  And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.

Acts 7:8  And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.

Philippians 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

The Hebrews were also not to be scavengers, eating the carcasses of animals, carrion, that had been killed by other beasts and left in the field. Dogs were to have that, not human beings, certainly not Hebrews.

Deuteronomy 14:21a  Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself…

Leviticus 17:15  And every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean.

[1] Ian Lancashire, ed., Lexicons of Early Modern English (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), http://leme.library.utoronto.ca/.