What Does Deuteronomy 23:20 Mean?
To a foreigner you may lend with a bite, but to your brother you shall not lend with a bite, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you stretch out your hand to, in the land where you go to possess it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
Hebrew names interest as a bite, while the blessing rests on the sending of your hand.
THE MEANING
This verse draws a real boundary between the stranger and the brother: a loan to a brother carries no usury, while a stranger may be charged it. The word rendered “usury” grows from the Hebrew verb for biting, naming the cost as something that can bite into the borrower. The promise speaks over the whole reach of your hand in the land, with blessing attached to what that hand sends forth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that lending terms are identical regardless of the relationship: it draws a sharp line between brother and stranger.
THE ROOT
תַּשִּׁיךְ
tashikh
GROWS FROM
נשך
n-sh-kh
To bite.
“lend with a bite” in this verse is tashikh. The verb translated “lend upon usury” grows from the root for biting, so interest is pictured as an action that bites into the borrower. The verse draws its sharp line at kinship: this bite is permitted with the stranger but barred in the brother’s loan.
ALSO GROWS
nashakh: To bite.
נָשַׁךְ
This is the verb beneath the lending term; the image of biting remains inside the word for charging interest.
neshekh: Interest or usury.
נֶשֶׁךְ
This noun names the charge itself with the same root that means to bite.
מִשְׁלַח יָדֶךָ
mishlach yadekha
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send, send forth, release, or stretch out the hand.
“stretch out your hand to” in this verse is mishlach yadekha. The phrase rendered “what you set your hand to” centers on mishlach, the sending or extension of the hand. Blessing accompanies the hand in motion, what it reaches toward and puts forth, not an abstract state detached from action.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: To send forth or release.
שָׁלַח
The verb shows the movement held in the phrase about the hand: it sends something outward.
shulchan: Table.
שֻׁלְחָן
The table is an extended surface of provision, echoing the hand stretched out to provide.
יְבָרֶכְךָ
yevarekhekha
GROWS FROM
ברך
b-r-kh
To bless; the root also names the knee.
“bless you” in this verse is yevarekhekha. The same consonants name a knee, so blessing carries the bodily image of a bent knee. Here the blessing covers the hand’s labor and extension, holding the kneeling posture and outward action together.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: Knee.
בֶּרֶךְ
This branch supplies the bodily image carried by the blessing root.
berakhah: Blessing.
בְּרָכָה
This is the blessing named in the verse, linked by the same root to the knee.
THE PATTERN
Lending is bounded by the borrower’s relationship and need, with scripture extending the pattern toward giving without expected return.
If you lend silver to any of my people who is bent low beside you, you shall not be to him as one who bites, nor lay the bite upon him.Take no bite from him, nor growth; but stand in awe of your God, that your brother may live with you.But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Highest, for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.THE THREAD
You shall surely give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, for on account of this word the LORD your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you stretch your hand out to.This verse repeats מִשְׁלַח יָדֶךָ (mishlach yadekha), “the sending of your hand,” and ties it to giving without a grieving heart. Deuteronomy 23:20 places that same hand’s reach within the boundary between brother and stranger; here, the hand’s giving stands beside the same promise of blessing.
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