If you take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him by sunset,
Parallel translations
- WEB If you take your neighbor’s garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down,
- KJV If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down:
- NKJV If you ever take your neighbor’s garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.
- NASB If you ever seize your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets,
- NLT If you take your neighbor’s cloak as security for a loan, you must return it before sunset.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A poor man's garment taken as collateral must be returned by nightfall. Even lawful claims must bend to a neighbor's basic needs.
Overview
The law limits a creditor's rights for the sake of the debtor's dignity and survival, requiring the return of his essential cloak each evening. Compassion takes priority over strict legal entitlement. This tempering of justice with mercy reflects the character of God and points to Christ, in whom mercy and justice meet.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Prov 20:16Take the garment of the one who posts security for a stranger; get collateral if it is for a foreigner.
- Amos 2:8They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. And in the house of their God, they drink wine obtained through fines.
- Deut 24:6Do 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.
- Job 24:3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
- Ezek 18:16He does not oppress another, or retain a pledge, or commit robbery. He gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing.
- Deut 24:10–13When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect security.
- Ezek 18:7He does not oppress another, but restores the pledge to the debtor. He does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing.
- Deut 24:17Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.
- Prov 22:27If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?
- Ezek 33:15if he restores a pledge, makes restitution for what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without practicing iniquity—then he will surely live; he will not die.
- Job 22:6For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing.
- Job 24:9The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 22:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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