CHAPTER 24

(1451 B.C.)

LAW OF DIVORCE

¹When a man has taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he has found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

²And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another mans wife.

³And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and gives it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;

⁴Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance. (Concerning this, Pulpit says, This is not a law sanctioning or regulating divorce; this is simply assumed as what might occur; and what is regulated here is the treatment by the first husband of a woman who has been divorced a second time. The minute regulations of these Chapters show how God came into the most intimate concerns of His People. To those who loved Him, this was a deep joy, but to those who did not love Him, an intolerable and irritating intrusion Williams.)

LAWS FOR NEWLYWEDS

⁵When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he has taken (this proclaims the fact that family life in Israel was very important, hence this regulation).

PLEDGES

⁶No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he takes a mans life to pledge (if a man were deprived of that by which food for the sustaining of life could be prepared, his life itself would be imperiled; so such an item could not be used as a pledge or mortgage).

KIDNAPPING

⁷If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel (kidnapping), and makes merchandise of him, or sells him; then that thief shall die; and you shall put evil away from among you (the penalty for kidnapping was death).

LEPROSY

⁸Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the Priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do.

⁹Remember what the LORD your God did unto Miriam by the way, after that you were come forth out of Egypt (Lev., Chpts. 13-14]).

SACREDNESS OF THE HOME

¹⁰When you do lend your brother any thing, you shall not go into his house to fetch his pledge.

¹¹You shall stand abroad, and the man to whom you do lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto you. (This concerns someone who had borrowed a sum of money on something in his house, such as furniture, etc. If he could not pay the money, the one to whom the mortgage was given could not come into his house and collect. The man must bring it out.)

¹²And if the man be poor, you shall not sleep with his pledge (concerning one who had pledged his garment):

¹³In any case you shall deliver him the pledge again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness unto you before the LORD your God. (Williams says, The spirit of all these ordinances is very touching as showing the goodness and pity of God, Who deigns to take knowledge of all these things, and to teach His People delicacy, propriety, consideration for others, sensitiveness in a word, Christlikeness.)

OPPRESSION

¹⁴You shall not oppress an hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brethren, or of your strangers (Gentiles) who are in your land within your gates:

¹⁵At his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it (at the end of each days work, the wages for the day were to be paid to day laborers); for he is poor, and sets his heart upon it: lest he cry against you unto the LORD, and it be sin unto you.

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY

¹⁶The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin (this Passage completely obliterates the modern false teaching of the family curse).

INJUSTICE

¹⁷You shall not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widows raiment to pledge:

¹⁸But you shall remember that you were a bondman in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you thence: therefore I command you to do this thing (to enforce this, the people are reminded that they themselves as a Nation had been in the condition of strangers and bondmen in Egypt).

GLEANING

¹⁹When you cut down your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands (in a sense, this was at least a part of Gods welfare program).

²⁰When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow (leave something for the poor).

²¹When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

²²And you shall remember that you were a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command you to do this thing.