to give · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
money
כַּסְפּ֤וֹkas.Po
H3701
silver (from its pale color) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
usury
בְּנֶשֶׁךְ֮be.ne.sheKh
H5392
interest on a debt · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
taketh
לָ֫קָ֥חla.Kach
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
reward
וְשֹׁ֥חַדve.Sho.chad
H7810
a donation (venal or redemptive) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
innocent
נָקִ֗יna.Ki
H5355
innocent · adjective, masculine singular absolute
doeth
עֹֽשֵׂה'o.seh-
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
never
לְעוֹלָֽםle.'o.Lam
H5769
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
moved
יִמּ֣וֹטyi.Mot
H4131
to waver · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
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 16:19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert…
Ezekiel 22:12 In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortio…
Deuteronomy 23:19-20 Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:
Ezekiel 18:8 He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true jud…
Matthew 7:21-25 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in he…
Exodus 23:7-8 Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.
Psalms 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 15:1–end
Here is, I. A very serious and weighty question concerning the characters of a citizen of Zion (Psa 15:1): "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Let me know who shall go to heaven." Not, who by name (in this way the Lord only knows those that are his), but who by description: "What kind of people are those whom thou wilt own and crown with distinguishing and everlasting favours?" This supposes that it is a great privilege to be a citizen of Zion, an unspeakable honour and advantage, - that all are not thus privileged, but a remnant only, - and that men are not entitled to this privilege by their birth and blood: all shall not abide in God's tabernacle that have Abraham to their father, b…
(Compare Lev 25:37; Deu 23:19-20).
usury is derived from a verb meaning "to bite." All gains made by the wrongful loss of others are forbidden.
taketh reward, &c.--The innocent would not otherwise be condemned (compare Exo 23:8; Deu 16:19). Bribery of all sorts is denounced.
doeth these, &c.--Such persons admitted to God's presence and favor shall never be moved (Psa 10:6; Psa 13:5).
Next: Psalms Chapter 16
John Gill on Psalms 15:5
He that putteth not out his money to usury,.... To the poor, in an extravagant and exorbitant way, by which he bites, devours, and destroys his little substance, and sadly afflicts and distresses him; see Exodus 22:25; otherwise, to lend money on moderate interest, and according to the laws, customs, and usages of nations, and to take interest for it, is no more unlawful than to take interest for houses and land; yea, it is according to the law of common justice and equity, that if one man lends money to another to trade with, and gain by, that he should have a proportionate share in the gain of such a trade; but the design of this passage, and the law on which it is founded, is, to forbid a…
What is more cruel than to lend money to one who has none and then to exact double the amount? If one cannot pay the simple amount, how will he pay double?… Nations have often failed because of usury, and this has been the cause of public calamity.
Money is clearly to be understood in two senses in the Holy Scriptures. The first is the metal money that we are completely forbidden to loan out for interest, because the vice of greed consists of the desire to demand back what you know that you have not lent. The Lord Christ certainly had this sort of money, which he entrusted to Judas to be distributed to the poor. He did not devote this type of money to making interest, but he gave it to those in need because of his merciful generosity in order to teach us. The other kind of money is the sort that we are persuaded by the gospel's teaching to give over to gain interest, namely, the most holy proclamations and divine instructions.
He who has not given his money at usury. There are many things that might be said, but the hour shuts us out. But since the day before yesterday we spoke about the beginning of the catechesis (κατήχησις), and, with God's favor, you came out of Chaldaea with Abraham, and you remember what we had said: how you came out of Chaldaea, and came into the land of promise — nay rather, the land of promise is promised to you. And indeed, after Abraham came into the land of promise, adversaries were on this side and that, enemies held the land. The Lord came, and led him outside, and set him on a mountain, and showed him the whole land, and said: 'All this I will give to you and to your seed.' To him he promised it, to us he will give it in return.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Debt — The Mosaic law encouraged the practice of lending (Deut. 15:7; Ps. 37:26; Matt. 5:42); but it forbade the exaction of interest except from foreigners. Usury was strongly condemned (Prov. 28:8; Ezek.…
Loan — The Mosaic law required that when an Israelite needed to borrow, what he asked was to be freely lent to him, and no interest was to be charged, although interest might be taken of a foreigner (Ex.…
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Usury — The sum paid for the use of money, hence interest; not, as in the modern sense, exorbitant interest. The Jews were forbidden to exact usury (Lev. 25:36, 37), only, however, in their dealings with…
Holiness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Honesty · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Integrity · 16:19,20; — 16:19,20;
Interest · but not generally signifying unlawful or unjust rates) — but not generally signifying unlawful or unjust rates)
Money · Silver used as — Silver used as
Righteousness · FRUITS OF — FRUITS OF
Usury · Forbid — Forbid
Usury Or Interest · True and faithful Israelites never took, from their brethren
Psalm 15:5
5. He putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh bribes upon the innocent. He that doeth these things shall not be moved for ever.
In this verse David enjoins the godly neither to oppress their neighbors by usury, nor to suffer themselves to be corrupted with bribes to favor unrighteous causes. With respect to the first clause, as David seems to condemn all kinds of usury in general, and without exception, the very name has been every where held in detestation. But crafty men have invented specious names under which to conceal the vice; and thinking by this artifice to escape, they have plundered with greater excess than if they had lent on usury avowedly and openly. God, ho…
The distich which contains the question and that containing the general answer are now followed by three tristichs, which work the answer out in detail. The description is continued in independent clauses, which, however, have logically the value of relative clauses. The perff. have the signification of abstract presents, for they are the expression of tried qualities, of the habitual mode of action, of that which the man, who is the subject of the question, never did and what consequently it is not his wont to do. רגל means to go about, whether in order to spie out (which is its usual meaning), or to gossip and slander (here, and the Piel in Sa2 19:28; cf. רכל, רכיל). Instead בּלשׁנו we hav…
The Lord prohibited Israel from charging interest to people in need (Exod 22:25-27). • The assurance of God’s presence keeps the godly from destruction (Pss 16:8; 46:5; 125:1). Their circumstances might shake them temporarily, but they ultimately stand firm (30:6; 94:18; 112:6).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 15:5
He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.
"He that putteth not out his money to usury." Usury was and is hateful both to God and man. That a lender should share with the borrower in gains made by his money is most fitting and proper; but that the man of property should eat up the poor wretch who unfortunately obtained a loan of him is abominable. Those who grind poor tradesmen, needy widows, and such like, by charging them interest at intolerable rates, will find that their gold, and their silver are cankered. The man who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord must shake off this sin as Paul shook the…
— True and faithful Israelites never took, from their brethren
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
