You shall not sleep in his pledge: as the context makes clear (verse 13), the object given in pledge is the poor man’s cloak, that is, the long outer garment with which he covered himself as he slept. Without it he would be cold. The lender, therefore, is not to keep the man’s garment after sundown, but is to return it to its owner. Contemporary English Version makes it clear that the man is so poor that the long outer garment (cloak, or coat) is the only thing he can give as a guarantee: “Suppose someone is so poor that a coat is the only thing that can be offered as a guarantee on a loan.”

The literal translation of Revised Standard Version does not make it immediately clear that, in this context, the object given in pledge is the man’s garment. It is better to supply that information immediately in verse 10, as Good News Translation does: “the garment he is going to give you as security.” New Revised Standard Version translates verse 12 as follows: “you shall not sleep in the garment given you as* the pledge,” with the following footnote: “Heb lacks the garment given you as.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .