What Does Deuteronomy 23:20 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
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.
“settest thine 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 thee” 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 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.Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.THE THREAD
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 thine hand unto.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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