The Widow, the Orphan and the Poor
16 “If a man entices a virgin who isn’t pledged to be married, and lies with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife. 17 If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins. 18 “You shall not allow a sorceress to live. 19 “Whoever has sex with an animal shall surely be put to death. 20 “He who sacrifices to any god, except to Yahweh only, shall be utterly destroyed. 21 “You shall not wrong an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 22 “You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; 24 and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. 25 “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor. You shall not charge him interest. 26 If you take your neighbor’s garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down, 27 for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What would he sleep in? It will happen, when he cries to me, that I will hear, for I am gracious. 28 “You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people. 29 “You shall not delay to offer from your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. “You shall give the firstborn of your sons to me. 30 You shall do likewise with your cattle and with your sheep. It shall be with its mother seven days, then on the eighth day you shall give it to me. 31 “You shall be holy men to me, therefore you shall not eat any meat that is torn by animals in the field. You shall cast it to the dogs.
The people with no legal standing are given God himself as their advocate, and the penalty for exploiting them is stated in the first person.
“You shall not wrong an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
The reason is memory. A nation that had been the foreigner is forbidden to treat foreigners as it was treated, and the argument is not abstract justice but experience they cannot have forgotten. It is the most frequently repeated social command in the law, and it always carries this clause.
22 “You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; 24 and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
The sentence is unusually direct. God does not say the courts will punish this; he says he will, and the punishment is measured out in exactly the currency of the crime — the oppressor's wife becomes a widow and his children orphans. Three groups are named in these verses, and they have one thing in common: in the ancient world none of them could bring a case. The alien has no kin, the widow no husband, the orphan no father. The law hands them the only advocate whose attention cannot be bought.
“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor. You shall not charge him interest.
The prohibition is specific to lending to the poor within the community. Its logic is that such a loan is relief rather than investment: a man borrowing because his harvest failed is not a business partner, and profiting from his failure turns a neighbor's crisis into an opportunity.
26 If you take your neighbor’s garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down, 27 for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What would he sleep in? It will happen, when he cries to me, that I will hear, for I am gracious.
The security may be taken and must be given back every evening, which makes it nearly useless as security — and that is the point. A poor man's cloak is his blanket, and a legal right to hold it does not survive the question of where he will sleep. The clause ends with a reason that is not a threat but a self-description: when he cries to me, that I will hear, for I am gracious.
These are the verses in which the character of the lawgiver becomes visible in the legislation. He hears the cry of people nobody else is listening to, and he says so twice in six verses.
The paragraph also contains three of the sharpest prohibitions in the code — against sorcery, bestiality, and sacrificing to any god but Yahweh Exodus 22:18–20 — and their placement beside the laws about widows is not accidental. A community's loyalty to God and its treatment of the defenseless are legislated in the same breath, because the book does not regard them as separate subjects.
settled What this mark means