If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down:
Parallel translations
- WEB If you take your neighbor’s garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down,
- BSB If you take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him by sunset,
- 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 his garment that is surety for a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.
- Amos 2:8And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
- Deut 24:6No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.
- Job 24:3They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
- Ezek 18:16Neither hath oppressed any, hath not withholden the pledge, neither hath spoiled by violence, but hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment,
- Deut 24:10–13When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.
- Ezek 18:7And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment;
- Deut 24:17Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge:
- Prov 22:27If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
- Ezek 33:15If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
- Job 22:6For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
- Job 24:9They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.
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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.