9208. Verses 25-27 If you lend silver to My people, to the needy one with you, you shall not be like a money-lender to him; you shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your companion's clothing as a pledge you shall restore it to him even at the going in of the sun. For this is his only covering; it is his clothing for his skin, in which he may sleep; and it shall be, when he cries out to Me, that I shall hear, for I am merciful.

'If you lend silver to My people, to the needy one with you' means giving instruction to those who have no knowledge of truth and still have a desire to learn it. 'You shall not be like a money-lender' means that it must be done in a spirit of charity. 'You shall not charge him interest' means that therefore it must not be done for the sake of gain to be acquired from it. 'If you ever take your companion's clothing as a pledge' means if factual knowledge of truth is dispersed by illusions that are a product of sensory impressions. 'You shall restore it to him even at the going in of the sun' means that it is to be restored before the arrival of a state of shade induced by delights belonging to external kinds of love. 'For this is his only covering' means because sensory impressions lie on a level below more internal things. 'It is his clothing for his skin' means that they also clothe relatively external things. 'In which he may sleep' means resting on them. 'When he cries out to Me' means pleading to the Lord. 'I shall hear' means help. 'For I am merciful' means that such help comes wholly from Him, out of mercy.

8005. 'And you shall not break a bone of it' means that factual knowledge of truth must also remain intact. This is clear from the meaning of 'a bone' as what is last and lowest, serving as a foundation for more internal things to rest on and as a support to prevent them from falling apart. This last and lowest support in spiritual things is factual knowledge; for all spiritual truths and forms of good flow down in accordance with order towards lower levels, coming to rest finally in factual knowledge, in which a person can then catch sight of them. As for the meaning of 'you shall not break' - that such knowledge must remain intact - this is self-evident. Factual knowledge is said to remain intact when it lets into itself nothing but truths that are in accord with its good; for factual knowledge is the general receptacle of them. Furthermore items of knowledge are like the bones in a person's body. If they do not remain intact or properly arranged, as when they are dislocated or are bent out of shape, the form of the body is consequently altered, and that altered form conditions its movements. Factual knowledge of truth may be equated with matters of doctrine.