Deuteronomy 24:12-13

24:12 If the person is poor you may not use what he gives you as security for a covering. 24:13 You must by all means return to him at sunset the item he gave you as security so that he may sleep in his outer garment and bless you for it; it will be considered a just deed by the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 24:17

24:17 You must not pervert justice due a resident foreigner or an orphan, or take a widow’s garment as security for a loan.


tn Heb “may not lie down in his pledge.” What is in view is the use of clothing as guarantee for the repayment of loans, a matter already addressed elsewhere (Deut 23:19-20; 24:6; cf. Exod 22:25-26; Lev 25:35-37). Cf. NAB “you shall not sleep in the mantle he gives as a pledge”; NRSV “in the garment given you as the pledge.”

tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “by all means.”

tn Or “righteous” (so NIV, NLT).