Scripture consistently condemns the practice of lending money at excessive interest rates, particularly when it exploits the poor and vulnerable. In Exodus 22:25, God forbids charging interest to fellow Israelites, while Psalms 15:5 praises those who do not lend at usury. Similarly, Proverbs 28:8 and Ezekiel 18:13 warn against profiting from the misery of others through unfair lending practices. Deuteronomy 23:19 also prohibits Israelites from charging interest to one another, emphasizing the importance of treating others with fairness and compassion in financial dealings.
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If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest.
who lends his money without interest and refuses a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.
He who increases his wealth by interest and usury lays it up for one who is kind to the poor.
He engages in usury and takes excess interest. Will this son live? He will not! Since he has committed all these abominations, he will surely die; his blood will be on his own head.
Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan.
In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.
Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.
He does not engage in usury or take excess interest, but he withholds his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between men.
Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received it back with interest.
He withholds his hand from harming the poor and takes no interest or usury. He keeps My ordinances and follows My statutes. Such a man will not die for his father’s iniquity. He will surely live.
Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess.
Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and conflict in all the land. I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.
You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess.
and after serious thought I rebuked the nobles and officials, saying, “You are exacting usury from your own brothers!” So I called a large assembly against them
Now 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. Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you. You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.
Why then did you not deposit my money in the bank, and upon my return I could have collected it with interest?’