Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
LOAN. The Mosaic law repeatedly enjoined it on the rich to come to the relief of the poor, not only with alms, but Lizard. also with loans. Ex 22:25; Lev 25:35-37; Deut 15:3; Deut 15:7-10; Deut 23:19-20. No interest was to be taken, Ex 22:25; Lev 25:36; Deut 23:19, and a pledge or security only under certain restrictions; the creditor was not allowed to enter the house of the debtor in claim of the pledge, Deut 24:10-11; a widow's raiment could not be taken as a pledge, Deut 24:17, or a millstone, Deut 24:6, nor could a poor man's raiment be kept over-night.
It was allowed to hold a debtor in bondage, but only to the jubilee — that is, for six years at the utmost, Lev 25:39-41, and in the sabbatical year all debts were cancelled and all pledges returned. Deut 15:1-3, Deut 15:7-10. These laws, however, had no reference to foreigners, from whom the Jews took interest and retained forfeited pledges; they also kept them as slaves. Nor were these laws kept strictly for a very long time.
Sons were later on seized for their fathers' debts, 2 Kgs 4:1, and interests were exacted, Neh 5:1, 2 Kgs 11:13; and in the time of our Lord the economic principles of the Jews seem to have approached very nearly to those of the rest of the commercial world. Matt 5:42; Matt 25:27; Luke 6:35; Luke 19:13.