Deuteronomy 24:10

10 Take heed to thyself in the plague of leprosy: thou shalt take great heed to do according to all the law, which the priests the Levites shall report to you; take heed to do, as I have charged you.

Deuteronomy 24:10 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 24:10

When thou dost lend thy brother anything
Any sum of money he stands in need of, or demanded a debt of him, as Jarchi; money he is indebted to thee, which is the sense of the Septuagint version; and he is not able to pay it, but offers something: in pawn till he can pay it:

thou shall not go into his house to fetch his pledge;
which would be an exercise of too much power and authority, to go into a neighbour's house, and take what was liked; and besides, as no doubt he would take the best, so he might take that which the poor man could not spare: and indeed, according to the Jewish canons ^F11, he could not take any pledge at all, but with the knowledge, and by the leave, of the sanhedrim, or court of judicature.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Misn. Bava Metzia, c. 9. sect. 13.

Deuteronomy 24:10 In-Context

8 Thou shalt not take for a pledge the under millstone, nor the upper millstone; for he who does so takes life for a pledge.

9 And if a man should be caught stealing one of his brethren of the children of Israel, and having overcome him he should sell him, that thief shall die; so shalt thou remove that evil one from yourselves.

10 Take heed to thyself in the plague of leprosy: thou shalt take great heed to do according to all the law, which the priests the Levites shall report to you; take heed to do, as I have charged you.

11 Remember all that the Lord thy God did to Mariam in the way, when ye were going out of Egypt.

12 If thy neighbour owe thee a debt, any debt whatsoever, thou shalt not go into his house to take his pledge: