The Law of Moses (or “Mosaic law”) has a lot to say about money. It is best to see all the various laws given through Moses as applications of the Ten Commandments. In this way, most of the laws concerning money flow from the ninth commandment: “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). This implies there is such a thing as personal property.
Thus, immediately following the Ten Commandments, in the body of laws that God gives to Moses (Exodus 20:22) are laws about restitution:
When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead beast shall be his.
(Exodus 21:33-34)
Damaging another person's property is therefore viewed as being a form of stealing. However, intentional stealing is still worse than this, and the restitution was to be for a greater amount:
If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
(Exodus 22:1)
Different situations call for different levels of restitution: an ox requires greater restitution because of its status as a work animal; its loss would be felt more keenly.
However, this rule is only for someone who gets caught. If a thief were to confess of his own accord, the restitution was set at 120% rather than 500%:
If he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt.
(Leviticus 6:4-5)
Later in Exodus 22 is a verse about lending money:
If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.
(Exodus 22:25)
The same prohibition is given in a different form in Deuteronomy:
You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
(Deuteronomy 23:19-20)
This has traditionally been taken to mean that that Christians should not charge interest on any loan made to another Christian, and in the Middle Ages this led to Jews becoming the sole money-lenders in Europe. When we look back at the Exodus verse, however, we see that the prohibition only extends to lending to poor brothers. We should probably read Deuteronomy 23:20 in the light of that: there is an implied contrast between the working Israelite poor and the foreign trader or merchant. Thus, we can conclude that it is wrong to charge interest on the money we loan to fellow Christians for necessities and emergencies, but it is permissible to charge interest on business loans.
In fact, many of the economic laws in the Pentateuch concern oppressing the poor. These obviously include the fatherless and widows, concerning whom the gleaning laws were established:
When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
(Deuteronomy 24:19)
The “poor”, however, also include hired labor:
You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.
(Deuteronomy 24:14-15)
Recognizing the continued existence of the poor should lead to generosity:
For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
(Deuteronomy 15:11)
This is in tension with Deuteronomy 15:4 which says almost the opposite thing, but makes it conditional:
But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess— if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today.
((Deuteronomy 15:4-5)
In this way, it is no sin to be poor, but for the Israelites in the Promised Land, the existence of poverty was the result of national disobedience.
Generous giving was to be above and beyond the tithe, offerings, and taxes that were required. We will look at these in more detail next time.
Finally, we should note that the laws about sabbaths and jubilees had a significant impact on the Israelite economy. Every seventh day was to be a day of rest, for animals as well as people:
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
(Deuteronomy 5:13-14)
Then, every seven years was to be a sabbath year where the land would rest:
For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
(Leviticus 25:3-4)
All debts were canceled in the sabbath year:
At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed.
(Deuteronomy 15:1-2)
In addition to this, after seven sabbath years (that is, in the 50th year), there was a special Jubilee year in which land was restored to its original owners:
And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.
(Leviticus 25:10)
This is because the promised land could not be actually be bought and sold, but only given in leasehold agreements:
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.
(Leviticus 25:23-24)
Because of the restoration of property in the jubilee year, prices were adjusted accordingly:
And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you.
(Leviticus 25:14-16)
That is, land with 40 years left on its lease is worth much more than the same land with two years left: the price of land would decline in value until the jubilee year, at which time it would be reset. However, prices were not merely to be set according to supply and demand, but were subject to certain price controls: overcharging was condemned. There is such a thing as a fair price.