Deuteronomy Chapter 24

At a Glance

  • DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 24.
  • Deuteronomy 24 continues the practical law code with a focus on personal and communal ethics in civil life.
  • Throughout, Deuteronomy 24 reframes justice and mercy in domestic and economic terms.
  • Historical & Literary Context.
  • As part of the Deuteronomic code, Deuteronomy 24 reflects late-ancient Near Eastern legal customary forms adapted to Israelite theology.

DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 24

Chapter Overview

Deuteronomy 24 continues the practical law code with a focus on personal and communal ethics in civil life. The chapter opens with allowances for divorce and remarriage, establishing procedures for writ of divorcement and the prohibition against remarrying the former wife after she has remarried and become defiled. This introduces a tension between personal autonomy and communal purity, highlighting how marriage laws regulate family life, lineage, and social order. The chapter then moves through social justice concerns: a husband’s duties toward a wife he has married, protections against exploitation in marriage and property, and rules governing pledges and the poor. It emphasizes humane and honorable treatment of the vulnerable, cautioning against taking hosts’ possessions or pawning essential belongings in ways that impoverish fellow Israelites. The text also returns to the theme of communal memory, recalling Miriam’s experience and the Lord’s deliverance as a call to fidelity and compassion in everyday dealings.

Throughout, Deuteronomy 24 reframes justice and mercy in domestic and economic terms. It balances personal rights with communal responsibility: a husband’s power is moderated by the law; the poor are protected against predatory lending; and pledges must be returned promptly so that the vulnerable may sleep warm and clothed. The shaping of society here is not merely legalistic; it is a theology of neighbor-love rooted in the memory of God’s salvation. The chapter ends with further guidance on marriage, debt, and social safety nets, continuing Israel’s call to a life shaped by gratitude to the LORD for liberation and provision.

Historical & Literary Context

As part of the Deuteronomic code, Deuteronomy 24 reflects late-ancient Near Eastern legal customary forms adapted to Israelite theology. It uses concise, case-based regulations characteristic of covenant law, but infuses them with moral emphasis on mercy toward the vulnerable and fair dealing within households. The chapter sits within Moses’ exhortations to a generation about to enter the land, where settled life requires reliable social structures—marriage stability, fair commerce, and care for the poor—to maintain communal integrity.

In the broader book, this chapter functions to ground the covenant in daily life—how money, marriage, and labor shape one’s relationship to God and neighbor. It aligns with other legal sections about pledges (to avoid exploitation), wages for work, and the protection of the weak. The inclusion of Miriam’s memory connects the nation’s identity to God’s acts of deliverance, underscoring that social justice flows from gratitude for salvation. The genre remains covenant law intertwined with hortatory speech, aiming to cultivate a people who reflect Yahweh’s justice in concrete, ordinary actions.

Key Themes

- Marriage ethics and family integrity: Divorce procedures and post-divorce remarriage rules shape family life, inheritance, and social order.

- Protection of the vulnerable in daily transactions: Rules on pledges, lending, and debt protection guard the poor from exploitation.

- Mercy and justice in property and labor: Prohibiting predatory practices and ensuring dignity in daily work and loans.

- Remembering deliverance as motive for right living: Remembrance of the Exodus and Miriam’s experience grounds social ethics in salvation history.

- Community stability through ritual and economic order: A society that cares for households—especially widows and orphans—reflects God’s own care for the vulnerable.

Modern Application

- Domestic justice and consent: The divorce language invites reflection on healthy, fair, and compassionate approaches to marriage and separation in modern contexts, emphasizing dignity and protection for all parties.

- Financial ethics: Protecting the poor from coercive pledges and unreasonable losses resonates with contemporary concerns about predatory lending, debt relief, and financial inclusion.

- Care for the vulnerable: Policies around labor, wages, and social safety nets echo modern social justice concerns—protecting workers, enabling stable households, and ensuring access to essential needs.

- Remembering salvation as motive for ethics: By tying present behavior to God’s acts of deliverance, the chapter calls modern communities to ground ethics in gratitude and trust in God’s provision.

- Family and social order: The text invites contemporary readers to consider how laws and norms shape family stability, lineage, and communal responsibility.

Cross-References (3-5 related passages)

- Exodus 22-23 (Laws on collateral and protection of the vulnerable)

- Leviticus 19 (Honoring the poor and good business practices)

- Deuteronomy 5:15 (Remembering God’s deliverance as motivation for life)

- Deuteronomy 23:19-20 (Lending among brothers)

- Proverbs 22:26-27 (Warning against pledges and debt)

Recommended Personas

- Moses (for covenant leadership, civil order)

- Jesus (for mercy in the handling of divorce and economic justice)

- Paul (for community ethics and church life in the social order)

- A widow or poor laborer (to illuminate the vulnerable perspective)

- A merchant or judge (to discuss practical application of justice)

Chapter Text

1

When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath 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.

2

And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.

3

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

4

Her 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 thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

5

When a man hath 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 hath taken.

6

No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.

7

If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you.

8

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

9

Remember what the LORD thy God did unto Miriam by the way, after that ye were come forth out of Egypt.

10

When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.

11

Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee.

12

And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge:

13

In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the LORD thy God.

14

Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:

15

At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee.

16

The 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.

17

Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge:

18

But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing.

19

When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.

20

When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

21

When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

22

And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing.

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