o the rich or to business men were allowed. The last text,
however, extends the prohibition to all loans to one's brother--an
expression which was of importance in Christian times, as Christian
writers maintained the universal brotherhood of man.

[Footnote 1: Exod. xxii. 25.]

[Footnote 2: Lev. xxv. 35.]

[Footnote 3: Deut. xxiii. 19.]

It is unnecessary for us to discuss the underlying considerations
which prompted these ordinances. Dr. Cleary, who has studied the
matter with great care, concludes that: 'The legislator was urged
mostly by economic considerations.... The permission to extract usury
from strangers--a permission which later writers, such as Maimonides,
regarded as a command--clearly favours the view that the legislator
was guided by economic principles. It is more difficult to say whether
he based his legislation on the principle that usury is intrinsically
unjust--that is to say, unjust even when taken in moderation. There
is really nothing in the texts quoted to enable us to decide. The
universality of the prohibition when there is question solely of Jews
goes to show that usury as such was regarded as unjust; whilst its
permission as between Jew and Gentile favours the contradictory
hypothesis.'[1] Modern Jewish thought is inclined to hold the view
that these prohibitions were based upon the assumption that usury was
intrinsically unjust, but that the taking of usury from the Gentiles
was justified on the principle of compensation; in other words, that
Jews might exact usury from those who might exact it from them.[2] It
is at least certain that usury was regarded by the writers of the Old
Testament as amongst the most terrible of sins.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Op. cit._, pp. 5-6.]

[Footnote 2: _Jewish Encyclopaedia_, art. 'Usury.']

[Footnote 3: Ezek. xviii. 13; Jer. xv. 10; Ps. xiv. 5, cix. 11, cxii.
5; Prov. xxviii. 8; Hes. xviii. 8; 2 Esd. v. I _et seq._]

The general attitude of the Jews towards usury cannot be better
explained than by quoting Dr. Cleary's final conclusion on the
subject: 'It appears therefore that in the Old Testament usury was
universally prohibited between Israelite and Israelite, whilst it
was permitted between Israelite and Gentile. Furthermore, it
seems impossible to decide what was the nature of the obligations
imposed--whether the prohibition supposed and ratified an already
existing universal obligation, in charity or justice, or merely
imposed a new obligation in ob