נָשָׁה
na.shah
to lend
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# נָשָׁה (nashah): The Hebrew Word for Lending The Hebrew word נָשָׁה (nashah) denotes the act of lending, appearing twelve times throughout the biblical text. This relatively modest frequency suggests it represents a specific economic transaction rather than a dominant concept in biblical discourse. The verb captures a fundamental commercial practice: the provision of resources—typically money or goods—with the expectation of repayment. The twelve occurrences indicate that lending was recognized as a distinct enough activity in ancient Israelite society to merit its own verbal expression. Unlike broader terms for giving or providing, nashah specifies a transaction with built-in obligation and reciprocity. This distinction reflects a society engaged in commerce and credit relationships where the temporary transfer of goods or capital formed part of daily economic life. Given its limited but consistent presence in biblical texts, nashah appears to function as a straightforward term for a recognized social practice. The word neither carries obvious moral weight nor appears to be emotionally charged in its basic definition—it simply labels what happens when one party provides something of value to another with the understanding that it will be returned. This neutral quality suggests the word serves as a practical descriptor of economic behavior rather than as a vehicle for theological commentary.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
12 total occurrences across the text
I likewise, my brothers and my servants, lend them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury.
Nehemiah 5:11Please restore to them, even today, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, that you are charging them.”
Psalms 109:11Let the creditor seize all that he has. Let strangers plunder the fruit of his labor.
Isaiah 24:2It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest.
Isaiah 50:1Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.
Jeremiah 15:10Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them curses me.
Jeremiah 15:10Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them curses me.
Exodus 22:25“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor. You shall not charge him interest.
Deuteronomy 15:2This 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 Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed.
Deuteronomy 24:10When you lend your neighbor any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.
Deuteronomy 24:11You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge outside to you.
2 Kings 4:1Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”