Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 24:12
If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security in your possession;
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites in the plains of Moab, establishing covenant regulations for lenders before they cross the Jordan.
The words — The Hebrew תִשְׁכַּב (tishkav) translates literally as "you will lie down," and עֲבֹט (avaṭ) means "pledge" or "security."
The thread — This prohibition against retaining a borrower’s collateral overnight aligns with the command in Deuteronomy 24:17 not to take a widow’s cloak as security and echoes the condemnation of unjustly seizing clothing found in Job 22:6.
Why it lands — The text commands lenders to return a poor man’s pledged cloak before nightfall so he retains basic shelter, requiring economic restraint over profit.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge:
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 24:17 Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.
- Job 22:6 For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing.
- Job 24:3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
- Job 24:9 The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.