Deuteronomy 24 Footnotes

24:1-4 Divorce is never authorized in the OT, though it is permitted (as here). The ideal was for one man to marry one woman for life (see 21:15; Gn 2:24). Moses allowed divorce, Jesus said, because of the hardness of people’s hearts (Mt 19:8). As so often in the OT law, the practice of divorce was to be strictly regulated, and remarriage—the real issue here—even more so. To take back a former wife who had married another in the interim would, in effect, make her an adulteress.

24:16 This verse teaches personal responsibility for one’s own sin and its consequences. This seems to contradict passages elsewhere that suggest that the sins of parents have repercussions for many generations to come (see 2:34; 5:9). There is a difference, however, between the transmission of guilt and accountability on the one hand, and the aftereffects of sin on the other. For example, David’s children were not held responsible for his adultery and murder, but they paid the price as members of the dysfunctional family his sin produced (2Sm 12:10).