Deuteronomy 15:6

For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) As he promised thee.—“1 will bless thee” was said to Abram (Genesis 12:2).

Thou Shalt lend.—The root of the word in Hebrew is closely connected with the word for “slave.” “The borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:1-11 This year of release typified the grace of the gospel, in which is proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord; and by which we obtain the release of our debts, that is, the pardon of our sins. The law is spiritual, and lays restraints upon the thoughts of the heart. We mistake, if we think thoughts are free from God's knowledge and check. That is a wicked heart indeed, which raises evil thoughts from the good law of God, as theirs did, who, because God had obliged them to the charity of forgiving, denied the charity of giving. Those who would keep from the act of sin, must keep out of their minds the very thought of sin. It is a dreadful thing to have the cry of the poor justly against us. Grudge not a kindness to thy brother; distrust not the providence of God. What thou doest, do freely, for God loves a cheerful giver, 2Co 9:7.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

There is no inconsistency between this and Deuteronomy 15:11. The meaning seems simply to be, "Thou must release the debt for the year, except when there be no poor person concerned, a contingency which may happen, for the Lord shall greatly bless thee." The general object of these precepts, as also of the year of Jubilee and the laws respecting inheritance, is to prevent the total ruin of a needy person, and his disappearance from the families of Israel by the sale of his patrimony.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. Save when there shall be no poor man among you—Apparently a qualifying clause added to limit the application of the foregoing statement [De 15:3]; so that "the brother" to be released pointed to a poor borrower, whereas it is implied that if he were rich, the restoration of the loan might be demanded even during that year. But the words may properly be rendered (as on the Margin) to the end, in order that there may be no poor among you—that is, that none be reduced to inconvenient straits and poverty by unseasonable exaction of debts at a time when there was no labor and no produce, and that all may enjoy comfort and prosperity, which will be the case through the special blessing of God on the land, provided they are obedient.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thou shalt lend unto many; thou shalt be rich and able to lend not only to thy poor brother, but even to strangers of other nations, yea, to many of them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee,.... He is faithful that has promised, and he always gives the blessing he promises according to the nature of the promise; if absolute, and without conditions, he gives it without respect to any; but if conditional, as the promises of temporal good things to Israel were, he gives according as the condition is performed:

and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shall not borrow; signifying they should be so rich and increased in goods, and worldly substance, that they should be able to lend to their neighbouring nations round about, but should stand in no need of borrowing of any of them. This is sometimes said of the language of these people, the Hebrew language, that it lends to all, but borrows of none, being an original primitive language; see Deuteronomy 28:12.

and thou shalt reign over many nations: which was fulfilled in the times of David and Solomon:

but they shall not reign over thee; that is, as long as they observed the commands of God; otherwise, when they did not, they were carried captive into other countries, and other people reigned over them, as at this day.

Geneva Study Bible

For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. will bless thee] Heb. is stronger, shall have blessed thee.

thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow] Heb. shalt take, but shalt not give, pledges; cp. 8, Deuteronomy 24:10-13. This promise of a large foreign commerce, repeated Deuteronomy 28:12 f. (with the contrast in 43 f.) is peculiar to D among the codes of Israel. It covers, of course, not only the lending of money and bullion (banking proper), but the sale of goods on credit at interest, to other nations. Such a foreign trade appears to have flourished with great profit both to Judah and Israel under the long contemporary reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam II (Isaiah 2:7; Hosea 12:7). There was large commerce with foreigners under Manasseh: cp. Ezekiel’s name for Jerusalem, the gate of the peoples (Deuteronomy 26:2, LXX), and the king of Persia’s refusal to allow the walls of Jerusalem to be rebuilt lest her former power of exacting tolls and customs should revive (Ezra 4:20). It is striking, however, that the fulfilment of D’s promise was most fully realised not while Israel remained on their own land but after their dispersion among the nations, from the Greek period onwards. Strabo’s words (quoted in Jos. XIV. Antt. vii. 2) are a remarkable acknowledgement of the political as well as financial superiority foreseen by D for Israel: ‘These Jews have penetrated to every city and it would not be easy to find a single place in the inhabited world which has not received this race, and where it has not become master.’ See further Jerusalem, i. 370 f., ii. 193 f., 392 ff.

Deuteronomy 15:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This blessing would not fail, if the Israelites would only hearken to the voice of the Lord; "for Jehovah blesseth thee" (by the perfect בּרכך, the blessing is represented not as a possible and future one only, but as one already bestowed according to the counsel of God, and, so far as the commencement was concerned, already fulfilled), "as He hath spoken" (see at Deuteronomy 1:11). "And thou wilt lend on pledge to many nations, but thou thyself wilt not borrow upon pledge." עבט, a denom. verb, from עבוט, a pledge, signifies in Kal to give a pledge for the purpose of borrowing; in Hiphil, to cause a person to give a pledge, or furnish occasion for giving a pledge, i.e., to lend upon pledge. "And thou wilt rule over many nations," etc. Ruling is mentioned here as the result of superiority in wealth (cf. Deuteronomy 28:1 : Schultz).