Additional Laws
Israel must not take a person’s means of living as collateral, must treat kidnapping as a capital crime, and must heed priestly instruction in cases of skin disease, remembering Miriam’s judgment on the journey from Egypt.
D6o not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security. 7If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you. 8In cases of infectious skin diseases, be careful to diligently follow everything the Levitical priests instruct you. Be careful to do as I have commanded them. 9Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the journey after you came out of Egypt.
A lender must not enter a neighbor’s house to seize security and must return a poor man’s cloak by sunset. Even debt collection is bound by dignity and mercy before God.
10When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect security. 11You are to stand outside while the man to whom you are lending brings the security out to you. 12If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security in your possession; 13be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before the LORD your God.
Poor laborers must be paid before sunset, punishment must remain personal rather than familial, and justice must not be denied to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. The command is anchored in Israel’s memory of slavery and redemption.
14Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 15You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. 16Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin. 17Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security. 18Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.
Forgotten sheaves and leftover olives and grapes must be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. Israel’s fields are to carry the memory of Egypt into practical provision.
19If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20When you beat the olives from your trees, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not go over the vines again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. 22Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.