Deuteronomy 24:1-14

24:1 If a man marries a woman and she does not please him because he has found something offensive ¹  in her, then he may draw up a divorce document, give it to her, and evict her from his house. 24:2 When she has left him ²  she may go and become someone else’s wife. 24:3 If the second husband rejects ³  her and then divorces her, ⁴  gives her the papers, and evicts her from his house, or if the second husband who married her dies, 24:4 her first husband who divorced her is not permitted to remarry ⁵  her after she has become ritually impure, for that is offensive to the Lord. ⁶  You must not bring guilt on the land ⁷  which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

24:5 When a man is newly married, he need not go into ⁸  the army nor be obligated in any way; he must be free to stay at home for a full year and bring joy to ⁹  the wife he has married.

24:6 One must not take either lower or upper millstones as security on a loan, for that is like taking a life itself as security. ¹⁰ 

24:7 If a man is found kidnapping a person from among his fellow Israelites, ¹¹  and regards him as mere property ¹²  and sells him, that kidnapper ¹³  must die. In this way you will purge ¹⁴  evil from among you.

Respect for Human Dignity

24:8 Be careful during an outbreak of leprosy to follow precisely ¹⁵  all that the Levitical priests instruct you; as I have commanded them, so you should do. 24:9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam ¹⁶  along the way after you left Egypt.

24:10 When you make any kind of loan to your neighbor, you may not go into his house to claim what he is offering as security. ¹⁷  24:11 You must stand outside and the person to whom you are making the loan will bring out to you what he is offering as security. ¹⁸  24:12 If the person is poor you may not use what he gives you as security for a covering. ¹⁹  24:13 You must by all means ²⁰  return to him at sunset the item he gave you as security so that he may sleep in his outer garment and bless you for it; it will be considered a just ²¹  deed by the Lord your God.

24:14 You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites ²²  or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. ²³ 

[24:1]  ¹ tn Heb “nakedness of a thing.” The Hebrew phrase עֶרְוַת דָּבָר (’ervat davar) refers here to some gross sexual impropriety (see note on “indecent” in Deut 23:14). Though the term usually has to do only with indecent exposure of the genitals, it can also include such behavior as adultery (cf. Lev 18:6-18; 20:11, 17, 20-21; Ezek 22:10; 23:29; Hos 2:10).

[24:2]  ² tn Heb “his house.”

[24:3]  ³ tn Heb “hates.” See note on the word “other” in Deut 21:15.

[24:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “writes her a document of divorce.”

[24:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “to return to take her to be his wife.”

[24:4]  ⁶ sn The issue here is not divorce and its grounds per se but prohibition of remarriage to a mate whom one has previously divorced.

[24:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “cause the land to sin” (so KJV, ASV).

[24:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “go out with.”

[24:5]  ⁹ tc For the MT’s reading Piel שִׂמַּח (simmakh, “bring joy to”), the Syriac and others read שָׂמַח (samakh, “enjoy”).

[24:6]  ¹⁰ sn Taking millstones as security on a loan would amount to taking the owner’s own life in pledge, since the millstones were the owner’s means of earning a living and supporting his family.

[24:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from his brothers, from the sons of Israel.” The terms “brothers” and “sons of Israel” are in apposition; the second defines the first more specifically.

[24:7]  ¹² tn Or “and enslaves him.”

[24:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “that thief.”

[24:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “burn.” See note on the word “purge” in Deut 19:19.

[24:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to watch carefully and to do.”

[24:9]  ¹⁶ sn What the Lord your God did to Miriam. The reference is to Miriam’s having contracted leprosy because of her intemperate challenge to Moses’ leadership (Num 12:1-15). The purpose for the allusion here appears to be the assertion of the theocratic leadership of the priests who, like Moses, should not be despised.

[24:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his pledge.” This refers to something offered as pledge of repayment, i.e., as security for the debt.

[24:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “his pledge.”

[24:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “may not lie down in his pledge.” What is in view is the use of clothing as guarantee for the repayment of loans, a matter already addressed elsewhere (Deut 23:19-20; 24:6; cf. Exod 22:25-26; Lev 25:35-37). Cf. NAB “you shall not sleep in the mantle he gives as a pledge”; NRSV “in the garment given you as the pledge.”

[24:13]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “by all means.”

[24:13]  ²¹ tn Or “righteous” (so NIV, NLT).

[24:14]  ²² tn Heb “your brothers,” but not limited only to actual siblings; cf. NASB “your (+ own NAB) countrymen.”

[24:14]  ²³ tn Heb “who are in your land in your gates.” The word “living” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.