does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man,
Evil manners, we say, beget good laws; and in like manner sometimes unjust reflections occasion just vindications; evil proverbs beget good prophecies. Here is, I. An evil proverb commonly used by the Jews in their captivity. We had one before (Eze 12:22) and a reply to it; here we have another.
Commenting on Ezekiel 18:1-9
If he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood,.... But if this just man beget a son that is a thief and a murderer, as he may; for grace is not conveyed by natural generation, though sin is: a good man has often bad children, even such as are guilty of capital crimes, as a "robber", a "highwayman", a "breaker up"...
usury--literally, "biting." The law forbade the Jew to take interest from brethren but permitted him to do so from a foreigner (Exo 22:25; Deu 23:19-20; Neh 5:7; Psa 15:5). The letter of the law was restricted to the Jewish polity, and is not binding now; and indeed the principle of taking interest was even then sanctioned, by its being allowed in the case of a foreigner.