The Mosaic law forbade lending " upon usury," that is, at interest; it prohibited " usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon word usury." This applied only to fellow Hebrews, however, loans on usury to strangers being allowable. Mercy in case of loans to the poor was enjoined. Some evidence of development in the law of usury exists, for, in the first pronouncement, interest taking was forbidden in the case of loans to the poor alone.