1 Of divorce. 5 A new married man goeth not to war. 6, 10 Of pledges. 7 Of manstealers. 8 Of leprosy. 14 The hire is to be given. 16 Of justice. 19 Of charity.
Deu 24:1 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,
indecent. Literally, “nakedness,” and figuratively, as here, “shame” or “dishonor.” Her offense could not have been adultery, for that was punishable by death (Deut. 22:22; cf. Matt. 19:9).
It was simply some behavior the husband considered improper or disgraceful. The Jews understood this Mosaic precept to mean that a man might divorce his wife for almost any reason (Matt. 19:3, 7). Christ explained, however, that it was not God’s will for divorce to be thus easily obtained (Matt. 19:4–6), and that this provision had been made only because of the “hardness” of their hearts (Matt. 19:8).
A certificate of divorce. Literally, “a note of separation.”
Gives it. This was to be done formally, perhaps before witnesses, in order that it might be legally valid and incontestable.
Send her from his house.
Another formal act. Presumably the husband was under obligation to send her forth provided with at least the necessary means to reach her father’s house in safety (see Gen. 21:14; cf. Deut. 15:13).
Deu 24:2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man,
Her formal departure was a public announcement of the fact that she was no longer the man’s wife and was, therefore, free to remarry. The “certificate of divorce,” completely dissolved the marriage.
Deu 24:3 and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies,
Deu 24:4 then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
She has been defiled. Consummation of marriage with a second husband made her unclean to her first husband. For him ever to take her again would be to commit adultery.
She was unlawful to him (see Jer. 3:1).
Sin upon the land. That is, by permitting moral depravity. Although God tolerated some things of which He certainly could not approve (see on Deut. 14:26), there were limits beyond which man might not transgress.
The “land” is often personified, as though it felt and acted (see Lev. 18:25; Isa. 24:5). Today some individuals refer to Deut. 24:1–4 as a basis for what they are pleased to consider “Christian divorce.”
These verses open to our view the home life of the Jew, in which the taking of a wife was regarded as the acquiring of a piece of property. The husband’s authority over his wife was almost absolute. The purpose of the law here announced was to better the lot of Hebrew women.
This law, far from establishing a low moral standard, or approving of one, represented a far higher standard than the cruel customs of the time recognized. The law guaranteed a divorced woman certain rights, and actually protected her from being considered as an adulteress and an outcast.
She left her first husband’s home a free woman and a respected member of society, eligible to contract an honorable marriage. The writ of divorce stated that her first husband no longer had any legal claim upon her and that she was in no way obligated to him—she was free to become another man’s wife.
Upon marrying again, she did not become guilty of adultery, and the rights of her first husband were not infringed upon. The Mosaic divorce law was instituted, not to annul the ideals of marriage as instituted by God at creation, but because of the “hardness” of men’s hearts (Matt. 19:8).
The cast-off, unattached woman’s lot was a deplorable one. The bill of divorce alleviated her unfortunate lot. This law simply recognized the prevailing situation and sought to improve it.
This was a law of permission, not one of command. These precise restrictions were designed to eliminate the easy divorce procedure the Hebrews had apparently learned in their association with heathen peoples.
It was against the concept of the wife as property that Christ spoke so emphatically (Matt. 5:27–32; 19:3–9). It had brought great misery and injustice to Jewish womanhood.
The school of Hillel, which provided the popular Jewish religious philosophy of the time of Christ, interpreted the expression translated “some uncleanness” (Deut. 24:1) as meaning anything that may have become displeasing to the husband.
The stricter, less popular Shammai school defined the “uncleanness” as some proved act of immodesty or adultery. In Christ’s time the Hillel school allowed divorce for such trivialities as the exposure of a woman’s arm in public, the burning of a husband’s meal, or when the husband found another woman more attractive.
Of this lax attitude Josephus writes, “He that desires to be divorced from his wife for any cause whatsoever (and many such causes happen among men), let him in writing give assurance that he never will use her again as his wife any more, for by these means she may be at liberty to marry another husband, although before this bill of divorce be given, she is not to be permitted so to do” (Antiquities iv. 8. 23).
The law of Deut. 24:1–4 did not institute divorce but tolerated it in view of the imperfections of human nature and the low moral concepts of God’s people at that time. To know God’s mind concerning marriage one must not camp at Deut. 24:1–4, but journey back to Gen. 1:27 and 2:24, even as Jesus did (Matt. 5:27–32; 19:3–9).
The written counsel of Moses for the people of his day is to be interpreted against the background of his day, not of ours, and ever with the divine ideal in view. Christ lifted men’s eyes once more to that divine ideal ordained in Eden. That first marriage provides the pattern God would have His people follow today.
Deu 24:5 If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.
Sent to war. See ch. 20:7. It is to the advantage of the state to enact such measures as will honor and exalt marriage. This law provided time for the firm establishment of the home.
Even more important, from the Hebrew point of view, it made more certain an heir to perpetuate the family name and to inherit the family land.
Deu 24:6 Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security.
The word translated “upper millstone” may refer to one stone, or to a piece of the mill (Judges 9:53; 2 Sam. 11:21). A man’s life. That is, by taking from him something essential to the preparation of his food and thus endangering the health of his family.
For centuries the poor of the East have lived on the verge of starvation, and a seemingly little things such as this might prove tragic.
Deu 24:7 If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.
Kidnaping a man to make a slave of him was a crime punishable by death. A man’s personal freedom is precious in God’s sight. Slavery is an inexcusable sin against God and against society, as well as against the slave. Yet slavery has existed in some form or other in Eastern lands from time immemorial.
The laws of God gave Israel were designed to eliminate slavery, in time. Slavery violates every human right and decency.
Deu 24:8 In cases of defiling skin diseases, be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them.
This was the worst form of ceremonial uncleanness, and therefore the most careful precautions were taken in respect to it. Two lengthy chapters in Leviticus (chs. 13 and 14) list the symptoms in great detail. The “plague,” literally, “the stroke.”
The same Hebrew word is used in chs. 17:8; 21:5. 9.
Deu 24:9 Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.
Miriam. See Num. 12. Miriam was one of three prominent leaders of Israel (Micah 6:4). Yet she was suddenly smitten with the dreadful disease leprosy, and driven from the camp of Israel for seven days (Num. 12:14).
Neither her outstanding position nor her personal relation to Moses protected her from it. The poorest and most miserable leper was treated no more harshly than a leper from some wealthy or officially prominent family.
There was a tendency among the Jews to view all cases of leprosy as divine judgments, but it is not reasonable to take such a view of all such instances (Luke 13:1 6).
Leprosy is a type of sin. The spiritual leper, whose very soul is diseased, can find no cure for his malady outside of Jesus Christ.
Deu 24:10 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge.
A legal provision for the protection of the poor. His home and its contents would be of small material value and would consist of only the barest of necessities.
Such a family would probably own nothing more than their clothes, a few pots, and a primitive grinding mill, in addition, perhaps, to house and land. Yet such a home was to be respected and to remain inviolate. It had little to offer as security for a loan (see Ex. 22:26, 27), but it was not to be abused as something of little consequence.
The owner would come to the door and display what he could offer as security. The lender was not to enter the home to pick and choose what he wished to take.
Deu 24:11 Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you.
God has erected a fence around the poor and humble. The property rights of the needy are as dear to God as are those of the wealthy and socially prominent.
Compare the parable of Matt. 18:23–35. God expects the Christian to manifest considerateness in dealing with his brothers.
Deu 24:12 If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession.
His pledge. His outer cloak may have been the only worth-while thing the poor man had to offer as his “pledge.” To offer clothing as security was not uncommon (Deut. 24:17; Job 22:6; Prov. 20:16; 27:13; Amos 2:8). This pledge was not to be held overnight (Ex. 22:25, 26).
The outer garment was used for many purposes (Ex. 12:34; Judges 8:25). On the requirement of restoring a poor man’s pledge see Eze. 18:7, 12; 33:15.
Deu 24:13 Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the LORD your God.
Righteousness. The faith of Abraham was reckoned to his account before God as righteousness. The manifestation of mercy to the poor and needy is equally pleasing to God (Matt. 25:34–36).
Men are the objects of God’s tender love and mercy, and He would have us look upon our fellow men in the same way. The Hebrew word for “righteousness” appears in both masculine and feminine forms. The later prophets of Israel used the feminine form, as Moses does here, with reference to sympathetic attention to the poor and needy.
They were dependent on God (Ps. 10:14; 72:12), who ever reminded His people that their obligation to Him included solicitous care for these needy ones (cf. 1 Sam. 2:8).
But at the same time they were not to do their “alms,” literally, “righteousness,” before men (Matt. 6:1). They were to be righteous before the Lord.
Deu 24:14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.
No difference was to be made between the natural Jew and the proselyte. Hired worker. Punctuality in the payment of wages is as positive a divine requirement as Sabbath observance or tithing.
Deu 24:15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
It is not an act of benevolence, but of justice. Compare the parable on laborers in the vineyard (Matt. 20:1, 2, 8). Setteth his heart. Literally, “lifteth up his soul.” He lived, as it were, from hand to mouth, and had no reserve.
Deu 24:16 Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.
Every man. It was not unusual among the heathen to condemn an entire family for the crime of one member (see Dan. 6:24). But God would have the transgressor himself bear the full penalty of his crime (2 Kings 14:6; Eze. 18:10–24).
The Scriptures draw a clear line of distinction between a penalty inflicted for a wrong act, as here (see also Rom. 6:23), and the natural results of such an act (Ex. 20:5).
Deu 24:17 Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.
Justice is not to be denied even the most helpless. The stranger, the widow, the orphan, and the helpless are to enjoy the full protection of the law (see Matt. 18:28–35).
Deu 24:18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.
The oppressor who has himself experienced the bitterness of oppression is doubly culpable.
Deu 24:19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
God ordained numerous laws for easing the lot of the needy (Lev. 19:9, 10; 23:22). The landless were given the privilege of gleaning the fields, the vineyards, and the olive groves.
The landowner could well spare the gleanings, and thereby bring happiness to the poor, relieve their need, and at the same time warm his own heart (see Prov. 11:24).
Deu 24:20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
Olive trees. From season to season the harvesttime in particular would remind men of the value and beauty of a compassionate spirit. The existence of the poor among us provides an opportunity for cultivating the spirit of generosity.
He who remains callous of heart at harvesttime, when he gathers in the bountiful gifts of nature, may scarcely be expected to exercise generosity at other times.
Deu 24:21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
Deu 24:22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.
Our own difficult and disappointing experiences in life should make us sympathetic toward others who may at a later time be suffering as we once did.