The Mosaic "usurer" was merely one who lent things for considerable periods of time, receiving three shekels where he had given two, or three bushels for two. In fact, the law seems to have desired that lending should be regarded as a form of charity, ordaining that the poor be given loans even though of thy the seventh year, when debts should lapse, were at hand, or though no security were given. It must be remembered that such regulation went hand in hand with legislation whose aim was to prevent the alienation of property, and that the seventh and jubilee years.