Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:
Ver. 19. Thou shalt not lend upon usury.] Heb., Upon biting usury. It must needs bite at length that licks so clean. Amalek, the licking people, I mean the nation of usurers and their factors, as cormorants, fall upon the poor borrower, and with open mouth devour him.
“ Eστι τοκος προ τοκοιο, τοκος γε μεν εστι και αλλος .”
Faenus a multiplici foetu, ut τοκος α τοκτω. In the year 1235, there were spread through England certain Roman usurers, called Caursini, quasi capientes Ursi; a devouring bears, saith Matthew Paris. These bite to purpose. Others are more cunning and close in their conveyance; like serpents, they can sting without hissing; like dog fish, suck your blood only with licking, and in the end kill you, and cut your throats without biting. "For as much as all usury, being forbidden by the law of God, is a sin, and detestable," &c., saith the statute, 13 Eliz., cap. 8. And "Verily so many as increase themselves by usury, &c., they have their goods of the devil's gift" (Homil. of the Church of England, vol. ii. hom. 17, p. 2). Aristotle, b by the dim light of nature, saw the evil of it, condemning in one page the usurer and the dicer. And Agis, General of the Athenians, so hated usury, that he made a bonfire of all the usurer's bills and bonds in the market place, and then said that he never saw a finer fire than that in all his life. c
a Speed.
b Arist., Eth., lib. iv. cap. 1.
c Plut., in Solone.