Negative commandment · Lo Ta’aseh #239 of 613
Not to take security from a debtor by force
שלא ימשכן בעל חוב בזרוע
The verse · Devarim 24:10
כִּי־תַשֶּׁה בְרֵעֲךָ מַשַּׁאת מְאוּמָה לֹא־תָבֹא אֶל־בֵּיתוֹ לַעֲבֹט עֲבֹטוֹ
“When thou dost lend thy brother anything, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.”
The Rambam’s words
Not to take security from a debtor by force, as [Deuteronomy 24:10] states: "Do not enter his home to take security."
שלא ימשכן בעל חוב בזרוע, שנאמר "לא תבוא אל ביתו, לעבוט עבוטו" (דברים כד,י).
Why · Sefer HaChinuch #585
To not take surety from a debtor by force
“It is from the roots of the commandments [that it is] so that people not be as if abandoned and violence increase in the land; that the big one swallow up the small one and take surety from him by force without fear of him, and that the small one not be able to get his case against the big one from fear of his stature.”
Who & when
“And this prohibition is practiced in every place and at all times by males and females.”
Where in the Mishneh Torah
Hilchot Creditor and Debtor הלכות מלווה ולווה