036. Garment Not to Be Taken in Pledge

Garment Not to Be Taken in Pledge (Exodus 22:26-27)

"If thou at all take thy neighbor’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: For that is his covering only, it is his garment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep?"

Retiring in a native home at night is a much more simple affair than in our country. The place where a man has been lounging around all day becomes his bed at night.

There is no furniture whatever in the tents or the guest rooms. When dusk comes, the mother spreads mats and rugs all over the floor or ground, and on these the whole family sleep; often three or four generations live in a oneroom house, and they all sleep on the floor together. When the peasant becomes sleepy, he just lies down in his clothes, wherever he happens to be at the time, - on the ground, on the sidewalk, or in the fields, it doesn’t matter to him; he pulls one of the wide sleeves of his cloak over his head, wraps the cloak around his body and he is asleep. Almost always his legs and feet are bare and exposed to the weather, rain or cold or even snow, but with no apparent discomfort to him at all. Many times we have been obliged to walk out on the street because a man or boy, or perhaps several, were having a nap on the sidewalk, head covered, legs and feet bare.

It is a very common sight to see men and boys thus sleeping, often with a stone for a pillow, not under the head, as we have our pillows, but under the neck.

Even today the giving of a small article as a pledge of security is very common. Still the taking of a coat or cloak for a pledge is considered most unkind, as it deprives the owner of his only night covering. This commandment, given so long ago to a people like the peasants of today, is still religiously kept, - a proof of how very little the customs of the Bible Lands have changed since Old Testament days.

"If thou take thy neighbor’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it to him before the sun goes down."