Deuteronomy 15 · a question people ask
Israel was told to love the foreigner. Why could they require payment of a foreigner here?
The chapter doesn't give a reason. It says, "Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release" (15:3). The release is for "his neighbor and his brother" (15:2). Five chapters earlier Moses said, "Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt" (10:19). In Hebrew these are two different words. The foreigner of 15:3 is nokhri, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "foreign, alien". The foreigner of 10:19 is ger, "sojourner" (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Deuteronomy keeps the two apart elsewhere too: meat that died of itself "You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates" (ger), "or you may sell it to a foreigner" (nokhri) (14:21); and "You may charge a foreigner interest; but you shall not charge your brother interest" (nokhri) (23:20). The text doesn't say more about why.
The verses
“This is the way it shall be done: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother, because the LORD’s release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release.”
“Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.”
“You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
“You may charge a foreigner interest; but you shall not charge your brother interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it.”