Deuteronomy · chapter 24 of 34
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Deuteronomy 24 regulates divorce and remarriage, protects the newly married man and limits what may be taken as a pledge. It commands paying a poor day laborer the same day, declares that each person answers for his own sin, and requires justice for the foreigner, orphan and widow, leaving the gleanings of grain, olives and grapes for them.
Moses continues with laws for everyday life in the promised land. This chapter brings together topics of family and economics: divorce, debts, wages, personal responsibility and care for the poor. Behind them all stands one memory: Israel was a slave in Egypt and God redeemed it, so it must treat the weak with compassion.
The chapter opens with a law about divorce. If a man divorces his wife because he finds something indecent in her and gives her a certificate of divorce, and she marries another man, the first husband may not take her again, because she has been defiled. Moses regulates the practice to curb abuse; he does not endorse it as an ideal. The newly married man is also protected: he is free from military service for a year to bring joy to his wife.
A millstone may not be taken as a pledge, because with it a man earns his living. Anyone who kidnaps and sells a fellow Israelite must die. Israel is told to remember what the Lord did to Miriam, in matters of skin disease. When something is lent, the lender may not enter the borrower's house to take the pledge; if it is a poor man's cloak, it must be returned before sunset.
A poor day laborer's wages are paid the same day. Fathers are not to be put to death for their children or children for their fathers; each for his own sin. Justice is not to be twisted for the foreigner, the orphan or the widow, and a widow's garment is not to be taken in pledge. And when harvesting grain, grapes or olives, what remains is left for the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, remembering that Israel was a slave in Egypt.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Moses regulates the case of a man who divorces his wife and gives her a certificate. The law limits abuses in an existing practice; Jesus explains in Matthew 19 that this concession was not God's plan from the beginning.
A poor day laborer, whether a fellow Israelite or a foreigner, must not be oppressed. Paying on time is a matter of justice toward someone who depends on each day's wages.
Parents are not to die for their children's guilt or children for their parents'; each answers for his own sin. It is a principle of personal justice that protects someone who did not commit the crime.
Whoever forgets a sheaf in the field must not go back for it but leave it for the foreigner, the orphan and the widow. God promises to bless a generosity that does not calculate and that makes room for the needy.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: A certificate of divorce. — Deuteronomy 24:1
Answer: One year, to bring happiness to his wife. — Deuteronomy 24:5
Answer: Because with it a man earned his living; it was taking his life in pledge. — Deuteronomy 24:6
Answer: Before sunset, so that he could sleep in it. — Deuteronomy 24:12-13
Answer: The same day, before the sun went down. — Deuteronomy 24:15
Answer: The forgotten sheaf, and the olives and grapes left after the harvest. — Deuteronomy 24:19-21
This chapter touches how we treat those who depend on us: the worker, the debtor, the needy. Paying a fair wage on time, not taking advantage of someone in trouble and leaving a generous margin for others are practices still needed today. A small group can think about who depends on their financial decisions and how to treat them justly.
On divorce, the chapter does not present it as an ideal but regulates a painful situation. Jesus recalls that from the beginning God's plan was the union of one man and one woman. The church can walk with truth and compassion alongside those who have experienced a broken marriage, without ceasing to value marriage and faithfulness.
Deuteronomy 24 shows that the memory of deliverance from Egypt must shape how people treat others, especially the weakest. Chapter 25 continues with laws on punishments, the law of levirate marriage, honest weights and the memory of Amalek.
The passage regulates an existing practice and limits its abuses but does not present it as an ideal. In Matthew 19 Jesus explains that Moses permitted it because of the hardness of people's hearts and that it was not so from the beginning. Christians hold differing positions on the cases in which divorce is possible.
It recalls what the Lord did to Miriam on the way out of Egypt, when she was struck with a skin disease for speaking against Moses, according to Numbers 12. The text uses it as a warning to obey the priests' instructions.
It teaches personal responsibility in human courts: no one should be punished for a relative's guilt. The prophets, such as Ezekiel 18, later developed the same idea.