“If you take your neighbor’s garment as collateral, you shall return it to him by the setting of the sun” (Exodus 22:25). “If you take…collateral [ḥavol taḥbol].” God says to him: ‘Although he is indebted to you, you are indebted to Me,’ as it is stated: “When they sin against You, as there is no person who does not sin” (II Chronicles 6:36). There are two matters here, ḥavol taḥbol.
The verse teaches you that if he takes the plowshare, he rises early and returns it.17If a creditor takes an essential item from the debtor that the debtor needs during the daytime, the creditor may take it by night but must return it before the debtor would start work during the day. This is derived from the phrase ḥavol taḥbol, as ḥavol means take, and taḥbol can be translated “give”. One verse says: “You shall return it to him by the setting of the sun,” and one verse says: “With the rising of the sun” (Deuteronomy 24:13).18The verse in Deuteronomy quoted here is often translated “with the setting of the sun,” but the midrash interprets it as referring to the rising of the sun (see Matnot Kehuna).
On this basis you deduce that you must return to him an item in which he may sleep, as the verse said: “By the setting of the sun.” In the morning, you must return the plowshare to him.19The creditor must return the collateral by sundown if it is an item that the debtor would need to use at night, and by sunrise if it is an item that the debtor would need to use by day. Likewise, it states regarding the laborer: “On his day you shall give his wage” (Deuteronomy 24:15).
Why? “Because he is a poor man” (Deuteronomy 24:15). And it says: “For that alone is his covering” (Exodus 22:26), as he does not have “in what shall he lie” (Exodus 22:26). He will be sitting all night and the cold will harm him.
He will cry out to Me and I will answer him, as it is stated: “[It shall be that when he cries out to Me,] I will hear, as I am gracious” (Exodus 22:26). There are two matters here that are similar to one another. Regarding a day laborer, it is written: “On his day you shall give his wage.” For example, one was walking with his donkey after him.
They sold him one sheaf; he placed it on his shoulder, and the donkey came on the road after the sheaf, anticipating to eat it.20The man placed the sheaf on his shoulder so that the donkey would follow him because it anticipated eating the sheaf. What did his master do to it? He tied the sheaf above him. They said to him: ‘Wicked one, all this way it ran for it, and you did not place it before him?’
So too, the day laborer toils and suffers all day because he is anticipating his wage and [yet the employer] sends him away empty-handed. Likewise it is written: “And he has his heart set on it” (Deuteronomy 24:15).