What Does Leviticus 25:37 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.
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
The Hebrew word rendered “usury” grows from the verb “to bite,” so the verse names interest as provision with teeth.
THE MEANING
Need is met without turning the help into a growing claim against the person receiving it. The verse pairs money charged with interest and food charged for increase, showing that extraction can attach itself to either kind of provision. It exposes the difference between giving support and making another person’s scarcity reproduce itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a loan remains generous when the recipient’s need is made to cost more over time.
THE ROOT
נֶשֶׁךְ
neshekh
GROWS FROM
נָשַׁךְ
nashakh
to bite
נֶשֶׁךְ (neshekh), rendered “usury,” comes from נָשַׁךְ (nashakh), “to bite.” The wording lets the charge appear as a bite taken from what the borrower needs, revealing the felt action beneath the financial term.
ALSO GROWS
nashakh: to bite
נָשַׁךְ
The verb makes the noun’s image bodily: the charge is described through the act of biting.
neshikhah: a bite; biting
נְשִׁיכָה
This related noun carries the same biting image, keeping the word’s physical force close to its financial use.
מַרְבִּית
marbit
GROWS FROM
רָבָה
rabah
to become many; to increase
The verse places increase beside the bite: the money charge takes, while the return demanded from food makes the amount grow. Together, the words show how either kind of provision can become a claim that expands against someone’s need.
ALSO GROWS
rabah: to become many; to increase
רָבָה
This verb names the growth carried by the demand for more than the food lent.
hirbah: to make many; to multiply
הִרְבָּה
This causative form shows increase as something brought about, illuminating how a debt can be made to grow.
THE PATTERN
Provision preserves life when it does not become a claim that compounds another person’s need.
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.He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.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
He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.The Hebrew word translated “usury” is again נֶשֶׁךְ (neshekh), from the root meaning “to bite.” The verse joins refusing that bite with steadiness: what does not feed on another’s need remains unshaken.
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