Deuteronomy 24:1-7

1 A man might marry a woman but later decide she doesn't please him because he has found something bad about her. He writes out divorce papers for her, gives them to her, and sends her away from his house.

2 After she leaves his house, she goes and marries another man,

3 but her second husband does not like her either. So he writes out divorce papers for her, gives them to her, and sends her away from his house. Or the second husband might die.

4 In either case, her first husband who divorced her must not marry her again, because she has become unclean. The Lord would hate this. Don't bring this sin into the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.

5 A man who has just married must not be sent to war or be given any other duty. He should be free to stay home for a year to make his new wife happy.

6 If someone owes you something, do not take his two stones for grinding grain -- not even the upper one -- in place of what he owes, because this is how the person makes a living.

7 If someone kidnaps a fellow Israelite, either to make him a slave or sell him, the kidnapper must be killed. You must get rid of the evil among you.

Deuteronomy 24:1-7 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.