INTEREST. This term for the profit received by a lender as inducement for making a loan is never rendered by “interest” in KJV, but rather by “usury.” RSV trs. by “interest” instead of “usury” (a term connoting excessive, ruinous rates of interest in twentieth century usage), but conforms to KJV practice in rendering Heb. tarbīt and marbīt by “increase” (even though they really import the same idea). The Heb. terms involved in the passages tr. “usury” are: (1) Nāšā (“to exact,” Isa 24:2); and its related noun, maššā (“an exaction,” Neh 5:7, 10). (2) Closely related is the verb nāšā^h (Exod 22:25; Isa 24:2; Jer 15:10). (3) Nāšak, which usually means “bite” (used of serpents), once means “lend upon interest” (Deut 23:20) in the qal stem, and twice in the hiphil stem (“impose usury upon someone”) (Deut 23:20, 21). In the NT the term is tokos, which originally meant “offspring”; it is used in the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:27) and of the Pounds (Luke 19:23). The similar concept tr. “increase” (marbīt) is found in Leviticus 25:37 “Thou shalt not lend him your money at interest—nešek—nor give him thy food for profit.” The cognate term, tarbīt (from the same root, rābā^h, “become much, become more”) occurs in the v. preceding (v. 36): “Take no interest from him nor increase (tarbīt), but fear your God; that your brother may live beside you.” It should be understood that ancient rates of interest were ruinously high; in Babylon, for example, it was common to lend food or produce at 33 1/3 percent interest, and money (i.e., silver bullion) at 20 percent. In Nuzi some loans were made at a 50 percent rate. Modern rates of interest at 5 percent or 8 percent were quite unheard of. The Pentateuch absolutely forbade the lending of money or produce to a fellow Israelite at interest (Lev 25:36, 37; Deut 23:19, 20), but simply on condition of the return of the principal (Exod 22:25). In later times these sanctions were disregarded, with resulting hardship to the borrowers, even to the point of taking their children off into slavery (cf. 2 Kings 4:1). Early in the 6th cent. Ezekiel summoned his countrymen to return to the humane rule of the Torah in this regard (Ezek 18:8, 13, 17; 22:12), and after the Restoration Nehemiah found that the exaction of usurious rates of interest had resulted in the loss of the property and homes of the poor in Judah (Neh 5:6-13). In his capacity as governor he compelled the lenders to give back all that they had taken at usury, and thus restore a brotherly relationship with their fellow believers. In the NT the practice of lending money at interest, at least through the agency of banks, seems to be accepted by Jesus as normal business procedure (Matt 25:27; Luke 19:23). See Debt, Debtor.