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I command. Then I also urge you to lend (for a loan is a second kind of gift), but to do this not with interest nor with usury, but as the divine word has commanded us; for both he who does not give a loan and he who gives with interest are equally liable to punishment, since the inhumanity of the one and the commercialism of the other have been condemned. But others desert to the opposite extreme, promising to withhold the gift entirely. This is a shameless objection, a mad contention against justice, strife and war against God. 'For either I will not give,' he says, 'or when lending I will make the transaction an interest-bearing one.' Therefore, the argument has contended sufficiently against the usurers, and for me, the points of the accusation have been adequately completed as in a court of law, 9.207, and may God grant them repentance; but to those who borrow readily and recklessly impale themselves on the hooks of interest I will make no argument, judging the counsel to be sufficient for them, which our divine father Basil wisely worked out in his own writing, having made a greater argument against those who borrow without counsel than those who lend avariciously.

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παραγγέλλω. ἔπειτα καὶ τὸ δανείζειν παρακαλῶ (δεύτερον γὰρ εἶδος δωρεᾶς δάνεισμα), ποιεῖν δὲ τοῦτο μὴ μετὰ τόκων μηδὲ πλεονασμῶν, ἀλλὰ καθὼς ἡμῖν ὁ θεῖος διετάξατο λόγος· ὁμοίως γὰρ ἔνοχος τιμωρίᾳ καὶ ὁ μὴ διδοὺς δάνεισμα καὶ ὁ μετὰ τόκων διδούς, ἐπειδὴ τοῦ μὲν τὸ μισάνθρωπον τοῦ δὲ τὸ καπηλικὸν κατακέκριται. οἱ δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἐναντίαν αὐτομολοῦσιν ἀκρότητα εἰς τὸ παντελὲς ἐφέξειν τὴν δόσιν ἐπαγγελλόμενοι. ἔστι δὲ τοῦτο ἀναιδὴς ἔνστασις, πρὸς τὸ δίκαιον φιλονεικία μανιώδης, πρὸς θεὸν ἔρις καὶ πόλεμος. ἢ γὰρ οὐ δώσω, φησίν, ἢ δανείζων ἔντοκον θήσομαι τὸ συνάλλαγμα. Πρὸς μὲν οὖν τοὺς τοκογλύφους ἱκανῶς ὁ λόγος διηγωνίσατο καὶ αὐτάρκως μοι τὰ τῆς κατηγορίας ὡς ἐν δικαστηρίῳ 9.207 διήνυσται, καὶ δοίη ὁ θεὸς αὐτοῖς μεταμέλειαν· πρὸς δὲ τοὺς προχείρως δανειζομένους καὶ τοῖς ἀγκίστροις τῶν τόκων ῥιψοκινδύνως ἑαυτοὺς περιπείροντας οὐδένα ποιήσομαι λόγον ἀρκεῖν αὐτοῖς κρίνας τὴν συμβουλήν, ἣν ὁ θεσπέσιος πατὴρ ἡμῶν Βασίλειος ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ συγγράμματι σοφῶς ἐξεπόνησε πλείονα πρὸς τοὺς ἀβούλως δανειζομένους ἢ τοὺς πλεονεκτικῶς δανείζοντας ποιησάμενος λόγον.