The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Redemption of the Poor
Leviticus 25:35–38 — Redemption of the Poor. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
35Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·ḵî- ’ā·ḥî·ḵā yā·mūḵ ū·mā·ṭāh yā·ḏōw ‘im·māḵ wə·he·ḥĕ·zaq·tā bōw gêr wə·ṯō·wō·šāḇ wā·ḥay ‘im·māḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if your-brother becomes-poor, and-his-hand wavers beside-you, then-you-shall-take-firm-hold of-him — a-stranger and-a-sojourner — that-he-may-live beside-you.
Where the English smooths the original
And fallen in decay with thee. —Literally, and his hand wavered with thee, that is, when it is weak and can no longer render support, or gain a livelihood.Ellicott recovers the literal Hebrew — the wavering, weakened hand — behind the AV’s abstract “fallen in decay.”
In Hebrew it is, if his hand shake: meaning if he stretch forth his hand for help as one in misery.The Geneva margin hears in the “shaking hand” both the failing strength and the gesture of a man reaching out for aid.
if he is no longer able to sustain himself alone, thou shalt take him by the arm to help him out of his misfortune. "Let him live with thee as a stranger and sojourner."K&D give the concrete force of the verb (“take him by the arm”) and adopt the disputed rendering of the last clause — live with thee as a resident alien, not “as you would a stranger.”
Thou shalt relieve him; by sympathy, pitying the poor; by service, doing for them; and by supply, giving to them according to their necessity, and thine ability.Henry’s threefold anatomy of relief — sympathy, service, and supply — the heart felt, the hand at work, the goods given.
The other and more probable rendering confines its application to native Israelites. If thy brother becomes poor, and his hand faileth, thou shalt support him as a stranger or a sojourner , that is, treat him with the forbearance shown to resident foreigners, to whose state he had reduced himself by the loss of his land.The Pulpit Commentary lays out the grammatical choice plainly and judges the “forbearance shown to resident foreigners” reading the more probable.
36Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’al- tiq·qaḥ ne·šeḵ wə·ṯar·bîṯ mê·’it·tōw wə·yā·rê·ṯā mê·’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā ’ā·ḥî·ḵā wə·ḥê ‘im·māḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
You-shall-not take from-him interest or-increase, but-you-shall-fear from-your-God, that-your-brother may-live beside-you.
Where the English smooths the original
Take thou no usury of him, or increase. —The first thing to be done to the impoverished Israelite is to supply him with the means to recover himself without any interest.Ellicott states the law’s first aim — interest-free means by which the poor man can recover his own feet.
If one borrow in his necessity, there can be no doubt this law is binding still. But it cannot be thought to bind where money is borrowed for purchase of lands, trade, or other improvements. For there it is reasonable that the lender should share with the borrower in the profit.Benson draws the line that has guided Christian ethics ever since — the bite on the desperate is always forbidden; partnership in honest gain is another matter.
To meet with the subtle evasions of crafty and covetous men, who made gain of their poor brethren (for of such only he speaks here, as is evident from Leviticus 25:35 ) by the lending of money or other things; and that they may quiet their consciences, and palliate their sin, they disguise it under other namesPoole reads the doubled vocabulary as the law outflanking the conscience-quieting disguises of the covetous — name the sin twice so it cannot hide.
but fear thy God; who has given this command, and expects to be obeyed; and who is good, and does good, and should be feared for his goodness' sake; and is omniscient, and knows what is secretly exacted, and will not suffer any exorbitance of this kind to pass unpunishedGill expounds the fear-of-God clause as the law’s true enforcement — the omniscient Witness of every secret exaction.
If he borrowed money, they were not to demand interest; or if food, they were not to demand any addition, any larger quantity, when it was returned (cf. Exodus 22:24 ; Deuteronomy 23:20-21 ), from fear of God, who had redeemed Israel out of bondage, to give them the land of Canaan.K&D bind the two prohibitions to their motive and to the parallels in Exodus and Deuteronomy — and forward to the redemption-from-Egypt ground of v. 38.
Usury was severely condemned (Ps 15:5; Eze 18:8, 17), but the prohibition cannot be considered as applicable to the modern practice of men in business, borrowing and lending at legal rates of interest.JFB supply the canonical reach the verbal threads below trace — Psalm 15 and Ezekiel 18 — while drawing the same line Benson does between the bite on the poor and ordinary commercial lending.
37You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō- ṯit·tên ’eṯ- kas·pə·ḵā lōw bə·ne·šeḵ lō- ṯit·tên ’ā·ḵə·le·ḵā ū·ḇə·mar·bîṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Your-silver you-shall-not give him at-interest, and-at-increase you-shall-not give your-food.
Where the English smooths the original
This is simply an emphatic repetition of the declaration in the foregoing verse, and favours the ancient distinction between the two terms.Ellicott reads v. 37 as deliberate reinforcement — the repetition itself argues for the old distinction between interest (on money) and increase (on goods).
Lend him thy victuals for increase - i. e. supply him with food for thy own profit.Barnes’ terse gloss exposes the heart of the prohibition — making private profit out of a neighbor’s hunger.
if a man gives a poor man a bushel of wheat, on condition he gives him two for it hereafter, this is lending or giving his victuals for increase.Gill gives the homely worked example of “increase” in kind — one bushel lent, two demanded back.
No interest was to be permitted in such a case for money lent, nor, if the loan took the form of the necessaries of life, was more than the amount lent to be exacted in return. The same law appears in Exodus 22:25 [Heb. 24]; Deuteronomy 23:20 . In the latter case it is from ‘a stranger’ interest may be demanded.Cambridge maps the law across the Torah (Exodus 22:25; Deuteronomy 23:20) and notes the one allowance — interest from a foreigner, never a brother. The documented basis for the verbal threads below.
38I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ă·nî Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê·ḵem ’ă·šer- hō·w·ṣê·ṯî ’eṯ·ḵem mê·’e·reṣ miṣ·rā·yim lā·ṯêṯ lā·ḵem ’eṯ- ’e·reṣ kə·na·‘an lih·yō·wṯ lā·ḵem lê·lō·hîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
I am the LORD your-God, who brought-you-out from-the-land of-Egypt, to-give to-you the-land of-Canaan, to-be to-you for-a-God.
Where the English smooths the original
Which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt. —For this appeal to the signal act of redemption from Egypt, see Lev. 12:45.Ellicott names the verse’s engine — the “signal act of redemption from Egypt,” recurring through the Holiness Code as the ground of every command.
Here, and in Leviticus 25:42 , Leviticus 25:55 , is expressed the principle which was to limit and modify the servitude of Hebrew servants.Barnes identifies the governing principle of the whole chapter — God’s ownership of a redeemed people sets the bounds of all Hebrew servitude.
Where they had been strangers and sojourners, and therefore should be kind to such in necessitous circumstances, and relieve them, and especially their brethren; and where God had given them favour in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they had lent them jewels of gold and silver, and raiment, and therefore they should lend freely to persons in distressGill turns the exodus into the logic of generosity — once strangers themselves, once freely given to, the redeemed must lend freely to the poor.
I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.The Geneva text preserves the verse whole — redemption, gift of the land, and the covenant climax, “to be your God.”
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The law opens on a man whose hand wavers. The Hebrew is concrete and pitiable: וּמָ֥טָה יָד֖וֹ (ū-māṭāh yāḏōw), “his hand totters,” the strength gone out of the limb that should provide. Ellicott recovers it from the AV’s abstract “fallen in decay”: “Literally, and his hand wavered with thee, that is, when it is weak and can no longer render support.” The Geneva margin hears both halves of the image at once — “if his hand shake: meaning if he stretch forth his hand for help as one in misery.” And the response commanded is not a gesture but a grip: וְהֶֽחֱזַ֣קְתָּ (wə-heḥĕzaqtā), “thou shalt lay hold of him.” Keil & Delitzsch make it physical — “thou shalt take him by the arm to help him out of his misfortune.” Matthew Henry unfolds the relief into three: “by sympathy, pitying the poor; by service, doing for them; and by supply, giving to them according to their necessity, and thine ability.” The man is named, throughout, ’āḥîḵā — “your brother.” The whole law rests on that word: the appeal is to kinship before it is to charity. And there is a real grammatical crux in the last clause, which we have not smoothed over: the BSB reads “help him as you would a foreigner,” but Keil & Delitzsch, the Cambridge Bible (with the LXX, Dillmann, Driver), and the Pulpit Commentary judge the more probable sense to be “let him live with thee as a stranger and a sojourner” — treat the impoverished brother with the forbearance shown a resident alien, since by losing his land he has reduced himself to a landless man’s estate.
The relief becomes a prohibition. נֶ֣שֶׁךְ (nešeḵ) — “interest,” but literally a bite, what the loan gnaws out of the borrower — and תַּרְבִּית (tarbîṯ) — “increase,” the multiplied return. Cambridge distinguishes them: nešeḵ “was interest on money, the latter on food stuffs and paid in kind.” Poole hears the two words as a deliberate net thrown over the conscience of the covetous, who “disguise it under other names… to quiet their consciences, and palliate their sin.” The authorities of the Second Temple, Ellicott reports, defined the bite to the denarius. But the law’s enforcement is not auditing; it is reverence: וְיָרֵ֖אתָ מֵֽאֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ, “thou shalt fear from thy God.” Gill presses exactly there — God “is omniscient, and knows what is secretly exacted, and will not suffer any exorbitance of this kind to pass unpunished.” The Christian expositors are careful, too, to bound the law: Benson distinguishes the bite on a desperate brother (“this law is binding still”) from honest commercial partnership, where “it is reasonable that the lender should share with the borrower in the profit.” Verse 37 then doubles the command with a bare, pointed verb — “your silver you shall not give at interest” — and adds a third increase-word, מַרְבִּית (marbîṯ), so that money and bread, gift and loan, are all shut out. Barnes reduces it to its nerve: “supply him with food for thy own profit” — that is the thing forbidden.
The law lands on a name. אֲנִ֗י יְהוָה֙ אֱלֹ֣הֵיכֶ֔ם — “I, YHWH, your God” — the self-identification formula that punctuates the Holiness Code, and, as Gill notes, “the preface to the ten commandments.” The motive is redemption: הוֹצֵ֥אתִי (hōwṣêṯî), the causative “I brought you out” of Egypt. Ellicott calls it “the signal act of redemption from Egypt.” Gill spells out the logic the verse only implies: Israel had been “strangers and sojourners” in Egypt — the very words used of the poor man in v. 35 — and there God “had given them favour… and they had lent them jewels of gold and silver… therefore they should lend freely to persons in distress.” The Hebrew even binds the gift to the prohibition with one verb: the same nāṯan (“give”) forbidden in v. 37 for usury (ṯittēn, give at interest) is the verb of God’s open-handed grace in v. 38 (lāṯêṯ, “to give you the land of Canaan”). A people given a whole land for nothing cannot take a bite out of a brother’s need. And the verse climbs past the land to its summit: לִהְי֥וֹת לָכֶ֖ם לֵאלֹהִֽים, “to be to you for a God.” Barnes reads this same principle (with vv. 42, 55) as the thing “which was to limit and modify the servitude of Hebrew servants”: because they belong to the redeeming God, no Israelite may be reduced to mere property.
Read under the rule that Scripture alone is the final authority, three things in this little law of mercy stand out — offered as a reading to be tested, not a verdict to be trusted.
Mercy is grounded in redemption, not in sentiment. The law does not say “be generous because the poor are pitiable,” though they are. It says “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” The command to grip the failing hand and to refuse the bite of usury rests, finally, on a fact about God: He redeemed a people from slavery and gave them a land for nothing. The redeemed lend as they were given to. The whole New-Covenant pattern is already here — “freely you received; freely give,” and “forgive… as God in Christ forgave you.” Grace received is the only durable engine of grace given.
The fear of God reaches where law cannot. A loan is a private transaction; a hidden surcharge leaves no witness. So the law does not multiply enforcement; it appeals to reverence — “fear your God.” As Gill saw, the omniscient One “knows what is secretly exacted.” Wherever human accountability runs out, the fear of God is meant to begin. This is the conscience of a covenant people, not the policing of a state.
A brother is to be gripped, never gnawed. Two pictures govern the unit, and they are opposites. The lawful hand lays hold of the brother (ḥāzaq, v. 35) to lift him; the lawless loan bites him (nešeḵ, v. 36) to drain him. The same neighbor is either taken by the arm or taken for a margin. Scripture forbids the second by name, in every form it could wear — interest, increase, profit, on silver or on bread — and commands the first. The poor man is family; you grip family, you do not feed on them.
Set against the text, these hold; but weigh them, and keep only what the Word supports.
The lawful hand lays hold of a failing brother to lift him; the lawless loan bites him to drain him — and a redeemed people may only ever do the first.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
Ezekiel turns this very law into a test of righteousness and life. In his portrait of the just man and his wicked son, the prophet measures each by whether he “hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase” (18:8, 17) against the one who “hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live” (18:13). The Verifier confirms the link is genuinely verbal: Ezekiel 18 shares with this unit the two rarest words of the law — נֶשֶׁךְ (nešeḵ, H5392, in only 10 verses) and תַּרְבִּית (tarbîṯ, H8636, in only 6 verses) — together with the verb ḥāyāh (H2421, “to live”), the very word that closes Leviticus 25:35–36. The convergence is striking: Leviticus commands the refusal of the bite “that thy brother may live”; Ezekiel announces that the man who takes the bite “shall not live,” while the man who refuses it “shall surely live.” The same rare vocabulary and the same life-and-death stake show the prophet consciously preaching the Holiness Code back to a generation that had broken it (cf. Ezek 22:12, “thou hast taken usury and increase”). Jamieson, Fausset & Brown already cite Ezekiel here: “Usury was severely condemned (Ps 15:5; Eze 18:8, 17).”
Leviticus 25:36 · Leviticus 25:37 · Ezekiel 18:8 · Ezekiel 18:13 · Ezekiel 18:17 · Ezekiel 22:12
basis: shared rare lexemes H5392 neshek (in only 10 vv) and H8636 tarbîyth (in only 6 vv), plus H2421 châyâh (the 'live' verb of Lev 25:35–36) and H3947 lâqach; the low frequency of neshek and tarbîyth forces a verbal tier — Ezekiel 18 re-uses the law's own paired terms and its life-stake, preaching the Holiness Code back to Israel. No NT-quotation claim; Hebrew↔Hebrew verbal echo
The wisdom and worship texts take the prohibition up as a mark of the citizen of God’s tent and a warning to the exploiter. Psalm 15, asking who may dwell on God’s holy hill, answers in part: “He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent” (15:5). Proverbs 28:8 turns it to providence: “He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.” The Verifier confirms shared lexemes with this unit in both: Psalm 15:5 shares נֶשֶׁךְ (nešeḵ, H5392, 10 vv), the wavering-verb môwṭ (H4131 — Psalm 15’s closing “shall never be moved” answering Leviticus 25:35’s “his hand wavers”), and keseph (H3701, silver/money); Proverbs 28:8 shares the rare pair nešeḵ (H5392) and tarbîṯ (H8636). The rarity of nešeḵ and tarbîṯ makes both links verbal: the Law’s ban on the bite becomes, in the Psalter, a condition of fellowship with God, and in Proverbs, an act that providence itself overturns for the poor. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown cite Psalm 15:5 by name in their note on this very passage.
Leviticus 25:36 · Leviticus 25:37 · Psalm 15:5 · Proverbs 28:8
basis: Psalm 15:5 shares H5392 neshek (10 vv), H4131 môwṭ (the wavering-verb of Lev 25:35), and H3701 keçeph; Proverbs 28:8 shares the rare pair H5392 neshek (10 vv) + H8636 tarbîyth (6 vv). The low frequency of neshek/tarbîyth forces a verbal tier — the Law's terms re-used as a condition of worship (Ps) and a providential reversal (Prov). Hebrew↔Hebrew, no quotation claimed
This command is one of three closely parallel usury-laws in the Pentateuch, and the commentators read them together. Exodus 22:25: “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.” Deuteronomy 23:19–20: “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals… Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not.” The Verifier confirms shared lexemes with both: Exodus 22:25 shares נֶשֶׁךְ (nešeḵ, H5392, 10 vv) and keseph (H3701); Deuteronomy 23:19 shares nešeḵ (H5392), ’ōḵel (H400, food — matching Leviticus 25:37’s “your food”), and keseph (H3701). Cambridge names the parallel explicitly: “The same law appears in Exodus 22:25… Deuteronomy 23:20. In the latter case it is from ‘a stranger’ interest may be demanded.” Keil & Delitzsch and Poole cross-reference the same texts. The rarity of nešeḵ across all three, plus Deuteronomy’s shared “food” word, makes this a verbal cluster — one law, three deliverances, with the brother/stranger distinction running through each.
Leviticus 25:36 · Leviticus 25:37 · Exodus 22:25 · Deuteronomy 23:19
basis: Exodus 22:25 shares H5392 neshek (10 vv) + H3701 keçeph; Deuteronomy 23:19 shares H5392 neshek (10 vv) + H400 ʼôkel (food, 40 vv — matching Lev 25:37) + H3701 keçeph. The rare neshek anchors a verbal tier across the three Pentateuchal usury-laws; named by Cambridge, K&D, and Poole. Hebrew↔Hebrew, no NT-quotation claim
The verb that opens this unit, מוּךְ (mûwk, “to grow poor,” H4134), is one of the rarest in the Hebrew Bible — five verses in all, and four of them in Leviticus 25, structuring the entire jubilee legislation into a sequence of deepening poverty. At 25:25 the brother grows poor and sells part of his land (redemption of property); at 25:35 (this unit) he grows poorer still and his hand wavers (relief and no usury); at 25:39 he grows poorer yet and sells himself to a fellow Israelite (the bondservant law); at 25:47 he hits bottom and sells himself to a resident stranger (redemption from a foreigner). The Verifier confirms mûwk shared across 25:25, 25:39, and 25:47, and at 25:47 it shares with this unit not only mûwk but the rare pair gêr/tôwšāḇ (H1616 + H8453, “stranger and sojourner,” the latter in only 13 vv) — the exact phrase of 25:35, now turned inside out: there the poor brother is treated like a stranger among brothers; here he is actually sold to a stranger. Cambridge cross-references 25:25 directly (“be waxen poor: See on Leviticus 25:25”). The recurrence of mûwk is the spine of the chapter; because the word is so rare, the link is verbal, not merely thematic.
Leviticus 25:35 · Leviticus 25:25 · Leviticus 25:39 · Leviticus 25:47
basis: shared rare lexeme H4134 mûwk (in only 5 vv, four of them in Lev 25) across 25:25, 25:39, 25:47; at 25:47 also the rare pair H1616 gêr + H8453 tôwshâb (in only 13 vv) — the very 'stranger and sojourner' phrase of 25:35. The extreme rarity of mûwk forces a verbal tier; it is the structural spine of the jubilee chapter, not a quotation
The closing self-identification of v. 38 — “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” — is the signature refrain of the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17–26) and, word for word, the preface to the Ten Commandments. Gill names the tie directly: “this, it may be remarked, is the preface to the ten commandments” (Exodus 20:2). Ellicott points to the same formula recurring through the legislation. The redemption-from-Egypt clause grounds command after command in Leviticus — the love of the resident alien (19:33–34, cited by Ellicott on v. 35: “the same consideration which strangers and sojourners receive”), the prohibition of harsh rule (25:42–43, 55). Held honestly: this is a thematic/structural thread, not a verbal one keyed to a single rare lexeme — the formula recurs by design across the whole Holiness Code and the Decalogue, so we tier it structural and rest it on the documented refrain, not on a forced lexical match. The point stands on the commentators’ own cross-references: every law in this section is hung on the same act of redemption.
Leviticus 25:38 · Exodus 20:2 · Leviticus 19:33 · Leviticus 25:55
basis: the recurring Holiness-Code self-identification formula 'I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt' (Exodus 20:2 = the Decalogue preface, named by Gill; Lev 19:33–34 and 25:55, cited by Ellicott and Barnes). A deliberately recurring refrain across the legislation, not a rare-lexeme echo — tiered structural and rested on the documented formula, under-claimed rather than asserted as verbal
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The law’s engine is grace: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (v. 38). Gill reads the mercy commanded here straight out of the mercy received — once “strangers and sojourners” in Egypt, freely given “jewels of gold and silver,” the redeemed “should lend freely to persons in distress.” Matthew Henry states the principle that the New Testament will make explicit: “It becomes those that have received mercy to show mercy.” This is precisely the gospel pattern: the servant forgiven an unpayable debt is bound to forgive his fellow (Matthew 18:32–33); “freely you received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8); “be kind… forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). The greater Redemption — out of a slavery deeper than Egypt — grounds a greater generosity. Held as a figure to test: this is a typological reading of the redemption-motive, cross-Testament and therefore not anchored on any shared Strong’s number; it is argued from the shared logic (redeemed-therefore-merciful) that both Testaments make explicit, and offered to be weighed against the Word.
Leviticus 25:38 · Matthew 18:32 · Ephesians 4:32
The unit’s two governing images point past themselves. The command is to lay hold of a failing brother (ḥāzaq, v. 35) — to grip the wavering hand and lift it — while refusing to take a bite (nešeḵ, v. 36) out of his need. Both find their fullness in Christ. He is the brother “not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11), who takes hold of the sinking (the same picture as Matthew 14:31, where Jesus “stretched forth his hand, and caught” the drowning Peter); and He is the One who, far from exacting the debt, cancels it outright — “having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting… that was against us… nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:13–14). Where the law forbade the lender to gnaw the borrower, the gospel shows the Lender bearing the whole loss Himself. Held as a figure to test: this typology is the trajectory of Hebrews 2 (Christ the brother who helps) and of the debt-language the New Testament uses for redemption; the move from Leviticus’ usury-law to Christ’s self-emptying cancellation is a figural extension, cross-Testament and not lexical, offered to be weighed and not asserted as the plain sense.
Leviticus 25:35 · Leviticus 25:36 · Hebrews 2:11 · Colossians 2:14
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain works on BibleHub (Ellicott, Benson, Henry, Barnes, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Poole, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge, Pulpit, Keil & Delitzsch) and attributed in place. The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; transliterations, parsings, the literal renderings, and the “where the English smooths the Hebrew” notes are this tool’s own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; check them against a lexicon (BDB, HALOT) and a standard grammar.
Four honesty notes specific to this unit. (1) The rare words. The verbal threads stand on genuinely uncommon vocabulary, and the Verifier confirms each: נֶשֶׁךְ (nešeḵ, “interest/bite,” in only 10 verses), תַּרְבִּית (tarbîṯ, “increase,” 6 verses), מַרְבִּית (marbîṯ, “profit,” 5 verses), מוּךְ (mûwk, “grow poor,” 5 verses), and תּוֹשָׁב (tôwšāḇ, “sojourner,” 13 verses). Because these are so rare, the links to Ezekiel 18, Psalm 15, Proverbs 28, Exodus 22, Deuteronomy 23, and the other jubilee verses are tiered verbal, not merely thematic — the same scarce terms are deliberately re-used. The common words shared in the same threads (give, silver, not) would not by themselves force a verbal link, and we have said so in each badge. (2) A real translation crux in v. 35. The clause “a stranger and a sojourner” may be a comparison (“help him as a foreigner,” so AV/BSB) or a description of how the brother is to live (“let him live with thee as a resident alien,” so K&D, Cambridge with the LXX, Dillmann, Driver, and the Pulpit Commentary). We have flagged the dispute rather than letting the BSB settle it silently; Cambridge even notes the two substantives may be a later insertion under the influence of 25:23, 47. (3) The Christ-links are cross-Testament. The two readings under “Christ in the Unit” connect the Hebrew law to Greek New-Testament texts and therefore cannot rest on a shared Strong’s number; both are marked typological (one widely-held, one novel), argued from shared logic and image, not from lexical identity, and offered to be tested against the Word. (4) An under-claimed thread. The “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt” thread (v. 38) is tiered structural, not verbal: it rests on a recurring Holiness-Code refrain and the Decalogue preface (named by Gill, Ellicott, Barnes), not on a single rare lexeme, so we have deliberately under-claimed it. This unit lies in Leviticus and contains no verse 1:5, so the standing Joshua 1:5 → Hebrews 13:5 flag does not apply here. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)