Divorce
24
📚When a man takes a woman and marries her, and it so happens that she is not pleasing in his eyes, because he has found something indecent in her, then let him write her a divorce certificate, give it into her hand, and send her out of his house.24:1 Matt 5:31-32; 19:7-9; Mark 10:4-9; 1 Cor 7:12-16. God did not command men to divorce their wives for any reason, but permitted it “because of the hardness of their hearts”. But He did not permit it for each and every reason that might occur to a husband, and He insisted that a husband should not abruptly send away his wife, but give her a bill of divorce. This instruction was to correct abuses for which the people were already guilty, and to restrain men in this matter of quick and easy divorce. Divorce was not God’s plan for mankind. See Mal 2:16.⚜
2 📚And when she has left his house, she may go and become another man’s wife. 3 And if this other husband hates her and writes her a divorce certificate, gives it into her hand and sends her out of his house, or if this other husband, who took her as his wife, dies, 4 📚her former husband, who sent her away, must not take her again as his wife, after she is defiled; for that is an abomination to the LORD; and you must not cause the land to sin, which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.
5 📚When a man has taken a new wife, he must not go out to war, and he must not have any public duty laid on him; but he is to be free at home for one year and give happiness to his wife whom he has married.
6 📚No man is to take the upper or lower millstone as a pledge; for he is taking a man’s life as a pledge.
7 📚If a man is discovered kidnapping any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and making him a slave or selling him, then that kidnapper shall die; and you shall purge evil from among you.
8 📚Be careful about the plague of leprosy, so that you diligently observe and do according to all that the priests the Levites teach you. You must be careful to do just as I commanded them.
24:8 Leviticus chapters 13 and 14. Note at Lev 13:2.⚜
9 📚Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way, after you had come out of Egypt.
24:9 Num 12:10. The disease referred to here was sometimes sent as a judgment from God (2 Kings 5:25-27).⚜
10 📚When you lend something to your brother you must not go into his house to take his pledge. 11 You must stand outside, and the man to whom you are giving a loan shall bring the pledge outside to you.
Compassion on the poor
12 📚And if the man is poor, you must not sleep with his pledge in your house; 13 📚at sunset you must certainly hand the pledge back to him, so that he may sleep in his own garment, and bless you. And this will be righteousness for you in the sight of the LORD your God.
14 📚You must not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is of your brethren, or of your foreigners who are in your land inside your gates. 15 📚You must give him his wages on his work day, before the sun sets on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it. Otherwise he may cry out against you to the LORD, and you will be guilty of sin.
16 📚Fathers must not be put to death for their children, and children must not be put to death for their fathers; each man shall be put to death for his own sin.
17 📚You must not pervert justice in regard to foreigners, or to the fatherless; and you must not take a widow’s garment as a pledge. 18 📚But you must remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you there. Therefore I command you to do this thing.
19 📚When you cut your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you must not go back to get it; it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 📚When you beat your olive tree, you must not go over the boughs again. What remains shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 21 📚When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterwards; it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 22 📚And you must remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing.