Chapter Twenty-Four
Laws: on divorce; on the exemption of a newly married man from military service; on pledges; on the violent enslavement of a person; on observing precautions regarding leprosy; on not withholding the wages of day laborers; on individual responsibility for one’s own sin; on justice; on charity.
Deuteronomy 24:1. If a man takes a wife and becomes her husband, and she does not find favor in his eyes because he finds something objectionable in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, and places it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, Deuteronomy 24:2. and she leaves his house, goes away, and becomes the wife of another man, Deuteronomy 24:3. and this latter husband also comes to hate her and writes her a certificate of divorce, placing it in her hand and sending her out of his house, or this latter husband who took her as his wife dies — Deuteronomy 24:4. then her first husband who sent her away may not take her back as his wife again, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord your God, and do not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. A husband had the right to give his wife “a certificate of divorce and send her out of his house,” that is, to divorce her formally, in the case when “she does not find favor in his eyes because he finds something objectionable in her” — in other words, when he encounters such physical or moral deficiencies as make continuing the marriage union either impossible or very burdensome. There could be no question of a wife’s adultery as grounds for divorce: by the sense of Deut 22:20-22, adulterers were subject to the death penalty. A man who married a girl he had seduced, and likewise one who unjustly slandered his wife for lack of virginity at the time of entering into (first) marriage, were permanently deprived of the right of divorce (Deut 22:13-19). The law of Moses makes no mention of divorce at the wife’s initiative. This circumstance gives some scholars reason to suppose that the wife was deprived of this right. But such a conclusion is hardly fair. If a concubine deprived of “food, clothing, and conjugal rights” (Exod 21:10-11) had the right to leave her husband, that is, to divorce him, all the more so a full wife. The Gospels (Mark 10:11-12) apparently confirm this assumption. The rabbis, who stand firmly on the ground of ancient Hebrew tradition, assert that a wife had the right to demand divorce: 1) if her husband withheld conjugal relations; 2) in the case of ten years of childlessness, if it was proven the cause lay with the husband; 3) in the case of physical deficiencies or 4) moral qualities of the spouse making continuation of the marriage impossible; 5) in the case of a contagious disease of the husband; 6) in the case of the husband’s primary occupation or trade being disagreeable to the wife. If the divorced parties had not subsequently entered into a second marriage, they could reunite as husband and wife (vv. 2–4). Otherwise, a second marriage between the divorced spouses was not permitted.
Deuteronomy 24:5. If a man has recently taken a wife, he shall not go to war, and nothing shall be required of him; he shall be free at home for one year and shall bring joy to the wife he has taken. Cf. Deut 20:7.
Deuteronomy 24:6. No one shall take a hand mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge. The stones of a hand mill are an indispensable part of everyday domestic life in the East. It is fair to suppose that the regulation, concretely expressed in the example of the hand mill, extended to other items of primary necessity in the household.
Deuteronomy 24:7. If anyone is found to have kidnapped one of his brothers, one of the sons of Israel, and enslaved him and sold him, then that thief must be put to death; and so you shall purge the evil from among you. Cf. Exod 21:16.
Deuteronomy 24:8. Take heed in the case of a leprous disease, and be very careful to observe and carry out all the law that the Levitical priests shall teach you; be careful to do as I have commanded them; See Lev 13-14.
Deuteronomy 24:9. Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the road when you were coming out of Egypt. Num 12
Deuteronomy 24:10. If you lend something to your neighbor, do not go into his house to collect the pledge, Deuteronomy 24:11. wait outside, and the man to whom you have made the loan shall bring the pledge out to you on the street; Yielding to greed, the creditor upon entering the debtor’s house might seize as a pledge some item whose value far exceeds the loan.
Deuteronomy 24:12. and if he is a poor man, you shall not go to sleep with his pledge in your possession: Deuteronomy 24:13. return the pledge to him at sunset, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you — and it will be counted as righteousness for you before the Lord your God. Cf. Exod 22:25-27. The heavy outer cloak, which can be done without during the day, is vitally necessary at night as protection from the cold — for a poor man it is the only one. Taking any garment of a widow as a pledge is entirely forbidden (v. 17).
Deuteronomy 24:14. Do not mistreat a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who live in your land, in your settlements; Deuteronomy 24:15. pay him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for he is poor and his soul depends on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it become a sin for you. Cf. Lev 19:13.
Deuteronomy 24:16. Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, and children shall not be put to death for their fathers; each shall be put to death for his own crime. The principle of human justice. Arrogating to human courts the prerogatives of divine judgment — which sometimes punishes fathers in their descendants (Exod 20:5) — could lead to injustice.
Deuteronomy 24:17. Do not pervert the justice due to a foreigner, an orphan, or a widow, and do not take a widow’s garment in pledge; Cf. Exod 22:21-24; Lev 19:33-36. Cf. Lev 19:9.