Note 10 — II. OUR DUTIES. (continued 2)

An exception from this law was made for the benefit of the stranger. The inhabitants of a town or a country who lived in the midst of their relatives, friends, and countrymen could, as a rule, be trusted to return the loan in due time. If they were not known themselves, they could find persons who would recognise them or even offer themselves as security for them. It was different with the stranger (‏הנכרי‎) “who came from a far land” (Deut. xxix. 21); he was not known; he was, as a rule, without friends; he had none to offer security for him.10 When in need, therefore, he would be unlikely to obtain a loan, if the lender were not permitted in such cases to take interest as compensation for risking the capital itself. The same reason explains also a second exception made in the law with regard to a stranger when a debtor. The payment of old debts is, as a rule, a great hardship to the insolvent, especially at a time when the benefit derived from the loan has already been forgotten. It was therefore ordained that every seven years a remission of all debts should take place. The debtor that lived in the country could easily be urged or forced to pay his debts, and the creditor could safely expect that he would receive his money before the year of release began. This was not the case with the stranger, who might with impunity keep out of sight for some time before the beginning of the seventh year: a circumstance that increased the uncertainty of the repayment, and would have rendered it almost impossible for a stranger to enjoy the benefit of a loan in times of temporary embarrassment, but for the exception made in his case from the law commanding the remission of all debts in the seventh year.