[Nathan]

In the book of Kings we read about a woman who came weeping to Elisha, the prophet. Her husband had died, and she owed a debt that she could not pay. The creditor was on his way to take her two sons and sell them as slaves.

By a miracle Elisha enabled her to acquire a goodly supply of oil. Then he said to her: “Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.” (See 2 Kgs. 4:1–7.)

“Pay thy debt, and live.” How fruitful these words have ever been! What wise counsel they are for us today!

In the words of wise men down through the ages, we find over and over again this great insistence upon the wisdom of being debt free. Shakespeare put on the lips of one of his characters in Hamlet these words: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be: for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” (Act 1, scene 3, lines 75–77.)

Others have written:

“Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity.” (Samuel Johnson.)

“The debt-habit is the twin brother of poverty.” (Theodore Thornton Munger.)

“Poverty is hard, but debt is horrible.” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon.)

“I have discovered the philosopher’s stone, that turns everything into gold: it is, ‘Pay as you go.’ ” (John Randolph.)

“Think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty.” (Benjamin Franklin.)

-from Ezra Taft Benson

[mcmama]

Thank you for these, Nathan, there is a lot of wisdom here. "Pay thy debt and live" should be a mantra for many of us. And Ben Franklin's words are very true, debt does give power to another.

[gordman]

Well it doesn't take an expert to tell that people don't really like debt... they why do they make it in the first place? This is the part that I don't understant. We have today so many options, we have flexibility and even if we face tought times we still get a second chance. Why is debt so bad? Because we have to pay it back? I recently had some debt difficulties myself .

[mrmnmom82]

It starts out as "managable" debt. Then we get a little free with our charging, things that we can do without. Then it gets out of control and we begin to drown in it. We can't keep up with the payments.

And if we can keep up with the payments, but have nothing in a savings account for a rainy day we are in biiiiiig trouble if someone looses a job or gets hurt.

Those 2 situations are usually how debt will get the best of you. So the idea is to stay away from it as much as we can. We NEED a house, we NEED a car to be able to get to work, and we NEED an education. I think those are the only situations that we should allow our selves to become dependant on finacial help from lenders, other wise, we need to learn to tell ourselves and our children NO! It's ok, it's actually good for us to not have everything we want. It builds character.

[Samual]

Can't afford can't have.

[J920]

This may not count because I am paraphrasing.
The Lord told the Israelites to never borrow from foreign nations because it opened them up to their gods and customs. In other words because of the debt you can be compromised in many other ways.
Also, the Israelites had a law that every 7 years they cancelled any debts that were owed to them (within the people). Kept them unified as a people and Godly people rather be what the Romans were.