Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.
Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers,.... "Trapezites", or "tablets", the same whom the Jews (z) call and is the same word which is here used in Munster's Hebrew Gospel; who were so called from the table that stood before them, on which they told, and paid their money, and the exchange and use: hence all the Oriental versions here read...
Verse 27. The exchangers. The exchangers were persons who were in the habit of borrowing money, Or receiving it on deposit at a low rate of interest, to be loaned to others at higher interest. They commonly sat by tables in the temple, with money ready to exchange or loan. See .
Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and [then] at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. (e) Bankers who have their shops or tables set up abroad, where they lend money at interest. Usury or loaning money at interest is strictly forbidden by the Bible, . Even a rate as low as one per cent interest was disallowed, .