The Mosaic code did, it is true, employ the death penalty more frequently than we do, yet it never employed or allowed cruelty in punishment. Its criminal legislation was vastly more humane than that of England only 150 years ago. This, particularly in that barbarous age, is worthy of notice.

We may not, however, content ourselves with negative proofs, when positive ones are so numerous that we can mention only a few of them.

For example, the provision made for the poor, “When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger. I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:9, 10). To this add other provisions for the poor. It was said that the poor were never to cease out of the land (Deut. 15:11). Therefore, “Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land” (Deut. 15:11). Every man was to have a care for his neighbor, and if he saw him “waxing poor and falling into decay” — getting behind-hand, we should say — he was by law to relieve him (Lev. 25:35-37), even though he was a foreigner. No interest was to be taken of such an one, nor any increase; i.e., no payment in any kind over and above the amount loaned. In this and in other respects the law of the Old Testament was much more humane than the best legislation today. A law of Massachusetts, for example, allows pawn-brokerage. It sets no limit, and makes no provision with regard to it, except a fine for carrying it on without a license. The poor man who is compelled to pawn his watch or his furniture is at the mercy of the broker for the best bargains that he can make; and it generally turns out that the article is lost for a tithe of its value. Our system of pledges by its attachments, mortgages, and bonds, under which, in failure of redemption, the law knows no mercy, and is always in favor of the creditor — never of the debtor.

Set now in contrast with this the Mosaic law. pledges might be taken; but certain articles, for instance the upper and nether millstones and the widow’s raiment might not be taken. But when pledges were taken of the poor they were not to be kept over night. When it was raiment especially it was to be returned before sundown. It was a law in favor of the poor. Still further, with reference to the poor, the fatherless, and the stranger, as if the provision noticed were not enough, every third year there was to be a tithing of the increase for them. The stranger also was not to be vexed or oppressed, as was the custom among the surrounding and barbarous nations, the remains of which custom are to be found in modern legislation in the form of passports, imposts, prohibitions and disabilities laid upon the foreigner and his traffic.

“The Ethics of the Old Testament” by William Brenton Greene, Jr. in Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation, ed. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., 233-234.