The Law · Chapter 24 of 34
Deuteronomy 24
A collection of merciful statutes protecting the weak and dignifying daily life. Regulation of divorce by a written bill; a newlywed man freed from war for a year; pledges taken with restraint so the poor keep their cloak and livelihood; wages paid the same day; individual accountability for sin; justice for stranger, orphan, and widow; and harvest gleanings deliberately left for the poor.
What happens in Deuteronomy 24
Moses regulates divorce, permitting a bill of divorcement but forbidding a man to take back a wife he divorced once she has married another. A newly married man is exempted from war and business for one year to cheer his wife. Millstones may not be taken in pledge, for that seizes a family's bread. Kidnapping and selling an Israelite is a capital crime. He warns to heed the priests in leprosy and to remember Miriam. Lending is bound by dignity: do not enter a house to seize a pledge, and return a poor man's cloak by sundown so he may sleep.
Wages must be paid daily, for the poor man sets his heart on them. Each person dies for his own sin, not another's. Justice must not be perverted for the stranger or fatherless, and harvesters must leave forgotten sheaves, olives, and grapes for the stranger, fatherless, and widow, remembering their own bondage in Egypt.
Deuteronomy 24 in context
Within Moses' second discourse, these humane laws temper economic power with memory: thou wast a bondman in Egypt. They assume a mostly agrarian, kinship society where a cloak was bedding and a day's wage was survival.
The divorce provision, later discussed by Jesus, tolerated a hardness of heart it did not endorse, regulating rather than commending the practice while giving the woman some legal standing.
Main themes of Deuteronomy 24
Deuteronomy 24 (KJV)
1When 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. 2And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. 3And 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; 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 thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. 5When 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. 6No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge. 7If 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. 8Take 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. 9Remember what the LORD thy God did unto Miriam by the way, after that ye were come forth out of Egypt. 10When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge. 11Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee. 12And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge: 13In 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. 14Thou 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: 15At 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. 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. 17Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge: 18But 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. 19When 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. 20When 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. 21When 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. 22And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing.
Verses to carry from Deuteronomy 24
“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.”Deuteronomy 24:1
“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.”Deuteronomy 24:15
“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.”Deuteronomy 24:19
New Testament quotation
How Deuteronomy 24 points to Jesus
This chapter's divorce law meets us on Jesus' own lips. When Pharisees asked why Moses commanded a bill of divorcement, he answered that Moses, for the hardness of their hearts, suffered them to put away their wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Christ reads the concession honestly, restoring marriage to its first design while offering grace to hard hearts. The chapter's tenderness toward the poor finds its fullness in him too: he preached good news to the poor, and would not break the bruised reed.
Where the law returns a cloak so a man can sleep, Christ gives rest to the heavy laden. And the principle that each bears his own sin makes the wonder plain, for he who had no sin bore ours, dying not for his own guilt but in our place.
Questions about Deuteronomy 24
Does this chapter command or merely permit divorce?
It permits and regulates it rather than commanding it. Jesus clarified that Moses tolerated divorce because of the hardness of hearts, not because it reflected God's original intent for marriage. The bill of divorcement gave the woman legal standing and some protection in a patriarchal setting. So the law restrains a practice it does not bless, meeting people where they were while pointing beyond them to God's better design.
Why does the law keep returning to Egypt?
Because memory shapes mercy. Israel is repeatedly told, thou wast a bondman in Egypt, so that their own experience of oppression and rescue becomes the ground of compassion. A people who remember being poor and enslaved should not exploit the poor and the stranger. Gratitude for grace received is meant to overflow as justice given to others who cannot repay it.
Reflection
Which of your daily transactions could carry more mercy: the way you pay, lend, hire, or forgive? The law paid the laborer before sundown because he set his heart on it. Remember your own rescue today, and let that memory soften how you treat someone with less.
A prayer from Deuteronomy 24
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