Bible Verses About Creditors

I thought the matter over and then took issue with the nobles and rulers. I charged them, "You are lending against pledges, everyone to his brother"; and I summoned a great assembly to deal with them.

I said to them, "We, to the limit of our ability, have redeemed our brothers the Judeans who sold themselves to the pagans. Now you are selling your own brothers, and we will have to buy them back!"They stayed silent; they couldn't think of anything to say.

I also said, "What you are doing is not good! You should be living in fear of our God, so that our pagan enemies won't have grounds for deriding us.

Moreover, my brothers and my servants, I too have loaned them money and grain. Please, let's stop making it so burdensome to go into debt.

Please! Today! Give them back their fields, vineyards, olive groves and homes; also the hundred pieces of silver and the grain, wine and olive oil you demand from them as interest."

They answered, "We will give it back. We will require nothing from them. Yes, we will do it, just as you say."Then I called the cohanim and took an oath from them that they would do as they had promised.

they drive away the orphan's donkey; as collateral, they seize the widow's ox.

They push the needy out of the way -the poor of the land are forced into hiding;

like wild donkeys in the wilderness, they have to go out and scavenge food, [hoping that] the desert will provide food for their children.

They must reap in fields that are not their own and gather late grapes in the vineyards of the wicked.

They pass the night without clothing, naked, uncovered in the cold,

wet with mountain rain, and hugging the rock for lack of shelter.

"There are those who pluck orphans from the breast and [those who] take [the clothes of] the poor in pledge,

"But as that servant was leaving, he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him some tiny sum. He grabbed him and began to choke him, crying, `Pay back what you owe me!'

His fellow servant fell before him and begged, `Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

But he refused; instead, he had him thrown in jail until he should repay the debt.

“So, after making appointments with each of his employer’s debtors, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my boss?’

‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. ‘Take your note back,’ he told him. ‘Now, quickly! Sit down and write one for four hundred!’

To the next he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. ‘Take your note back and write one for eight hundred.’