Job 22:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For thou hast taken a pledge— See chap. Job 24:7. Who that sees this ranked among the greatest enormities, says Bishop Warbuton, but will reflect that it must have been written by one studied in the law of Moses; which says, If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down, &c. But was this practice of taking a pledge peculiar to the Israelites? or rather, was it not absolutely necessary in those early times, before they had the use of money, at least in any great plenty? See on chap. Job 42:11. Now, when all commerce was in a manner transacted without money, and chiefly by an exchange of one commodity for another, the taking of a pledge must of necessity happen very frequently: a proper exchange not being to be had. This, therefore, would make the custom as common in Arabia as in Judea; and I conceive that any hard usage to the poor in this way was as much to be condemned in the one country as in the other. See Peters.