Deuteronomy 24, The Poor and Vulnerable

We continue exploring some decrees that flow out of the principles underlying the Ten Commandments.

Deuteronomy 24: 1-4, Divorce

If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. 

That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

If, in this time, a man ruins a marriage with divorce, he doesn't get a second try later.  Some suggest that this second marriage to the same woman was viewed as another form of adultery or may have been a prohibition against wife-swapping?

Rabbis debated on the meaning of "displeasing" -- could this describe any minor frustration a man had with his wife, or did it mean adultery.  Jesus was asked to elaborate on this in Matthew 19: 1-9.

Deuteronomy 24: 5, Newlywed

If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.
 

A newlywed man is to spend a year developing his marriage without national duties such as warfare thrown upon him.  In the patriarchal society that emphasized the importance of a man having descendants, this decree would also protect a man from dying in battle still childless.

Deuteronomy 24: 6, Millstone

Do not take a pair of millstones--not even the upper one--as security for a debt, because that would be taking a man's livelihood as security.

This is one of several admonitions against action that would destroy a person's livelihood.

Deuteronomy 24: 7, Kidnapping

If a man is caught kidnapping one of his brother Israelites and treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.

Kidnapping, slave capture and trading of slaves is all forbidden.  (This implies that where "slavery" is allowed, it is that of an indentured servant, for a time not to exceed six years.) The punishment for kidnapping or selling a slave was death, see Exodus 21: 16. 

Deuteronomy 24: 8-9, Leprosy

In cases of leprous diseases be very careful to do exactly as the priests, who are Levites, instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them. Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.

Leprosy is a generic term for various skin diseases. This admonition looks back to Miriam's disease when the Israelites were leaving Egypt. Miriam got the skin disease when, in Numbers 12, she and Aaron challenged Moses.

Deuteronomy 24: 10-13, Loans

When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into his house to get what he is offering as a pledge. Stay outside and let the man to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you.

If the man is poor, do not go to sleep with his pledge in your possession. Return his cloak to him by sunset so that he may sleep in it. Then he will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the LORD your God.

 

Apparently one is not to use the pledge as an excuse to invade the man's home.

Like the millstone decree above, depriving a man of his cloak overnight is to deprive him of more than material possessions, is to harm him by not letting him sleep comfortably.

Deuteronomy 24: 14-15, Pay wages promptly

Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns.

Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
 

This is another decree that recognizes the thin margins of the poor -- they should be paid for their work immediately; their wages should not be held back for a time.  Later, the prophet Malachi accuses the Israelites doing exactly this -- of abusing the poor and powerless, see Malachi 3: 5.

Deuteronomy 24: 16, Personal responsibility

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

Justice and punishment are by individual, not by family. One is responsible for one's actions, but not the actions of their parents or children.

Deuteronomy 24: 17-18, Care for the alien and fatherless

Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. 

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

All of Israel is to care for the vulnerable.  They are to recall their poverty and suffering in Egypt and to empathize with the alien.

Deuteronomy 24: 19-22, Gleaning

When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, 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, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. 

When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.

There are methods, in an agricultural society, to allow the poor to get some food by cleaning up after the harvesters.  These decrees set a formal process by which the vulnerable, the alien/fatherless/widow, can follow the harvesters and survive. If these commandments are arising from meditations on the Tenth Commandment, then this type of hospitality represents the opposite of coveting; it is a positive side of the "Do not covet" commandment.