Leviticus 25:36

Summary

Leviticus 25:36 prohibits taking neshekh ("interest", H5392) and tarbit ("profit", H8636) from a fellow Israelite, framing this restraint as an act of fearing God. The verse closes with the consequence: the brother's continued life "with you" ('immakh, H5973A + H9032).

Key words

• ti.Kach ("you take", H3947G) — qal jussive, functioning as a prohibition when preceded by 'al- ("may not", H0408); this construction expresses a direct, personal command rather than an absolute negation.
• Neshekh ("interest", H5392) — masculine singular noun, the first of two paired terms for gain taken from a loan.
• tar.Bit ("profit", H8636) — feminine singular noun, joined to neshekh by the conjunction ve- ("and", H9002); the pairing of a masculine and feminine noun covers two related but distinct forms of financial gain.
• ya.Re.ta ("you will fear", H3372H) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the verbal chain begun by the prohibition; this form ties the fear of God syntactically to the preceding command as its consequence or parallel action.
• Chei ("he will live", H2421) — qal sequential perfect, the final link in the chain, expressing the resulting state of the "brother" ('a.Chi., H0251I) once the prohibition is kept.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of three verbs linked by the narrative/sequential vav (H9001): a jussive prohibition ('al-tiqqach, "you shall not take"), followed by two sequential perfects (ve-yare'ta, "and you will fear"; ve-chei, "and he will live"). This chaining structure presents the fear of God and the brother's continued living as sequential outcomes flowing from obedience to the prohibition, rather than as three independent, unrelated statements. The verb tiqqach ("you take", H3947G) governs both neshekh and tarbit, which are joined without repeating the negation, indicating they are treated as a single combined object of the prohibition.

The phrase me'ittô ("from with him", H9006 + H0854 + H9033) specifies the source of the forbidden transaction — the transaction is "from him," i.e., from the person to whom one might lend. The construct chains 'elohekha ("your God", H0430G + H9021) and 'achikha ("your brother", H0251I + H9021) both use the second-person suffix -kha (H9021), tying the deity and the fellow Israelite personally to "you," the addressee. The final phrase 'immakh ("with you", H5973A + H9032) closes the verse by locating the brother's continued existence spatially/relationally alongside the addressee.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the paired nouns as τόκον ("interest") and πλήθει ("multitude/increase"), using a different construction (οὐ...οὐ, "not...not") rather than the Hebrew's single negation governing both nouns joined by "and." The LXX also inserts ἐγὼ κύριος ("I am the Lord"), a phrase absent from the Hebrew text as given. The Vulgate renders tarbit as "amplius quam dedisti" ("more than you gave"), a paraphrastic rendering rather than a direct noun-for-noun equivalent, and restructures the final clause with a purpose construction ("ut vivere possit frater tuus," "so that your brother may be able to live") rather than following the Hebrew's sequential perfect chain.