If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset. The cloak taken as a pledge for a loan is the poor person's only covering — taking it overnight leaves the borrower without warmth at night. The law requires its return by sunset: the creditor's security interest does not extend to causing the debtor physical suffering. Deuteronomy 24:13 repeats this with the additional reason: it will be counted as righteous before the Lord your God. The return of the cloak is not only a legal obligation but a righteous act. The meeting of legal requirement and righteous character is characteristic of how the Torah sees covenant law: it is not external compliance but the expression of the kind of person the covenant is forming.

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