Deuteronomy 24. Various Laws

Laws Concerning Divorce

“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, ² and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, ³ and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, ⁴ then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

• If a man divorces his wife due to indecency, and she remarries, she cannot return to her first husband after the second marriage ends.
• The phrase used here is סֵפֶר כְּרִיתֻת (sefer keritut) or “book/scroll of cutting off”
• This passage does NOT command divorce
  • Jesus references this passage in Matthew 19, explaining that Moses permitted divorce because of the hardness of people’s hearts, but God’s original intention for marriage is found in Genesis 2:24.

Miscellaneous Laws

⁵ “When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.

• A newly married man doesn’t go to war for one year, so he can stay home with his wife

⁶ “No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge.

• Don’t take millstones (used for daily food) as a pledge for a loan.

⁷ “If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

• Kidnappers (of fellow Israelites) must be put to death, especially for selling someone as a slave.

⁸ “Take care, in a case of leprous disease, to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you. As I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. ⁹ Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

• Listen to priests in cases like leprosy, remembering what God did to Miriam (see Numbers 12)

¹⁰ “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. ¹¹ You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. ¹² And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. ¹³ You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

• Don’t enter a debtor’s home to take a pledge and return their cloak by night so they can sleep.

¹⁴ “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. ¹⁵ You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.

• Pay workers daily, especially the poor, so they’re not deprived.

¹⁶ “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

• Parents aren’t punished for children’s sins, or vice versa.

¹⁷ “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, ¹⁸ but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.

¹⁹ “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰ When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. ²¹ When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. ²² You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.

• Care for the marginalized 
  • Don’t deny justice to foreigners, orphans, or widows.
  • Leave leftover grain, olives, and grapes in the field for them.