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Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:

Number:

4874 (find all occurrences in KJV Bible)

Transliteration:

mashsheh

Phonic:

mash-sheh’

Meaning:

from 5383; a debt

KJV Usage:

+ creditor

From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

2 Kings 4:1¹Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. (2 Kings 4:1). The creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.

The Mosaic law gave the creditor the right to claim the person and children of the debtor who could not pay that they, might serve him until the year of Jubilee, when they again became free. See Leviticus 25: 39-41. Reference is made to this custom in Nehemiah 5:5,8⁵Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards. (Nehemiah 5:5)
⁸And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer. (Nehemiah 5:8); Job 24:9⁹They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor. (Job 24:9); Isaiah 50:1¹Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. (Isaiah 50:1).

There was a similar, though severer, law among other nations, who are supposed to have derived the idea from the Hebrews. See Matthew 18:25²⁵But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. (Matthew 18:25).