UNROLL
Evening in a reaped field on a terraced hillside: pale stubble with one bound sheaf of barley lying forgotten in the middle, olive trees and a vineyard on the terraces above.

The Book of

Deuteronomy 24

A cloak handed back by sunset, wages paid before dark, a sheaf left in the field: mercy from people who had once been slaves.

22 verses≈ 5 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–4Remember the wayFrom Horeb to Moab
  2. 5–11Love the LORDThe heart of the covenant
  3. 12–26Laws for the landWorship, justice, neighborChapter 24
  4. 27–30Blessing and curseChoose life
  5. 31–34Moses' farewellA song, a blessing, a death

Marriage and Divorce Laws

The law

Divorce and return

  1. Divorce

    A certificate of divorce

    If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.

  2. She becomes another’s wife

    If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife,

  3. Divorced again, or widowed

    and the second man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house, or if he dies,

  4. The limit

    No return to the first husband

    then the husband who divorced her first may not remarry her after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination to the LORD.

  5. No sin on the land

    You must not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

If a man is newly married, he must not be sent to war or be pressed into any duty. For one year he is free to stay at home and bring joy to the wife he has married.

Additional Laws

Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security.

If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you.

In cases of infectious skin diseases, be careful to diligently follow everything the Levitical priests instruct you. Be careful to do as I have commanded them. Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the journey after you came out of Egypt.

Moses

Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

Reflect

Before the sun goes down

Twice in a few verses the sun sets on a poor man. His cloak is to be back with him “by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you,” and his pay in his hand “each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them.” Who depends on you being on time and being fair: an employee, a contractor, a friend you owe, a family member waiting on a promise? Write down one thing you have let slide that someone else is waiting on, and settle it before the sun goes down.

Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.

Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

Deuteronomy 24:18

At dusk a widow in a dark wool mantle sits in the doorway of a poor mud-brick house with her small son leaning against her, an empty bowl on the step between them.
Autumn afternoon in an olive grove: an old tree already beaten, a few dark olives left high in its branches and on the ground, as a widow in a dark mantle and her small boy gather the fallen ones into a basket.

If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

When you beat the olives from your trees, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not go over the vines again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

0:29

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

Remember, and do likewise

Slaves in Egyptremember · 18, 22Redeemed by theLORDHe brought you out ·18The pledgereturnedthe cloak by sunset ·13Wages paideach day before sunset· 15Justice for theweakforeigner, fatherless,widow · 17Gleanings leftsheaf, olives, grapes· 19–21

Whiteboard

Twice the chapter gives the same reason: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.” Israel had been the poor man without a cloak, the laborer without wages, the foreigner without a defender, and God had set them free. So the pledge goes back by sunset, the wages are paid that day, the weak get justice and the forgotten sheaf stays in the field. People who have been shown mercy are to show it.

Question

Quick question

Harvest laws were God’s way of feeding the poor through the work of ordinary farmers.

What was a farmer to do with a sheaf he forgot in his field?

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Deuteronomy 24

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A verse to carry with you

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

Deuteronomy 24:18

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