Deuteronomy 24:1-11

1 When a man taketh a wife, and marrieth her, it shall be if she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a letter of divorce, and give it into her hand, and send her out of his house.
2 And she shall depart out of his house, and go away, and may become another man's wife.
3 And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a letter of divorce, and give it into her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die who took her as his wife;
4 her first husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for it is an abomination before Jehovah; and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
5 When a man hath newly taken a wife, he shall not go out with the army, neither shall any kind of business be imposed upon him; he shall be free for his house one year, and shall gladden his wife whom he hath taken.
6 No man shall take the hand-mill or the upper millstone in pledge; for it would be taking life in pledge.
7 If a man be found who hath stolen one of his brethren of the children of Israel, and who hath treated him as a slave and sold him, that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from thy midst.
8 Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou take great heed, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them shall ye take heed to do.
9 Remember what Jehovah thy God did unto Miriam on the way, after that ye came forth out of Egypt.
10 When thou dost lend thy brother anything, thou shalt not go into his house to secure his pledge.
11 Thou shalt stand outside, and the man to whom thou hast made a loan shall bring out the pledge to thee without.

Deuteronomy 24:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 24

This chapter contains various laws concerning divorces, De 24:1-4; the discharge of a newly married man from war and business, De 24:5; about taking pledges, De 24:6,10-13; man stealing, De 24:7; the plague of leprosy, De 24:8,9; and giving servants their hire in due time, De 24:14,15; concerning doing justice in capital cases, and towards the stranger, fatherless, and widow, De 24:16-18; and of charity to the poor, in allowing them the forgotten sheaf, and the gleanings of their oliveyards and vineyards, De 24:19-22.

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Or 'been made to defile herself.'
  • [b]. Lit. 'hath taken a new.'
  • [c]. i.e. the mobile stone; the lower part was fixed.
  • [d]. Lit. 'a soul.'
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.