Deuteronomy 24

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

This is the Balanced text at the default settings. The notes, the reasoning behind each verse and the reader settings need JavaScript..disputed-note .fn-pop-more { display: none; }

Divorce and remarriage

¹Suppose a man marries a woman, but she does not please him because he has found something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, hands it to her and sends her out of his house, ²and she leaves his house and becomes the wife of another man, ³and the second husband turns against her too, writes out a certificate of divorce for her, puts it in her hand and sends her from his house, or if the second husband who married her dies, ⁴then her first husband, who sent her away, may not take her back to be his wife, since she has been made unclean. That would be detestable in the sight of the LORD. You must not bring sin on the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

⁵When a man has just married, he is not to go out with the army or have any other duty laid on him. He is to be free to stay at home for a year and give joy to his new wife.

⁶Do not take a hand mill, or even its upper millstone, in pledge for a debt. That would be taking in pledge the very means a person lives by.

⁷If anyone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating the victim as a slave or selling him, that kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you. ⁸When a serious skin disease breaks out, take great care to do exactly what the Levitical priests teach you. Be careful to follow what I commanded them.

⁹Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on your journey after you came out of Egypt.

Pledges and wages

¹⁰When you lend your neighbor anything, do not go into his house to pick out what he will give you as security. ¹¹Wait outside, and let the borrower bring the pledge out to you. ¹²If he is poor, do not go to bed with his pledge still in your keeping. ¹³Be sure to give the pledge back to him at sunset, so that he can sleep in his cloak and bless you. It will be counted as righteousness for you in the sight of the LORD your God.

¹⁴Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether a fellow Israelite or an outsider living in one of the towns of your land. ¹⁵Give him his pay on the day he works, before the sun sets, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may call on the LORD against you, and the sin will be counted against you.

¹⁶Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents. Each one is to be put to death only for their own sin.

The outsider, the fatherless and the widow

¹⁷Do not deny justice to the outsider or the fatherless child, and do not take a widow’s cloak in pledge. ¹⁸Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

¹⁹When you are harvesting your field and leave a sheaf behind by mistake, do not go back for it. Let it go to the outsider, the fatherless child and the widow. That way the LORD your God will bless all the work of your hands. ²⁰When you knock the olives from your trees, do not go back over the branches a second time. What is left is for the outsider, the fatherless child and the widow.

²¹When you pick the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over it again for what remains. That is for the outsider, the fatherless child and the widow. ²²Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.