Chapter 24

¹When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. ²When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. ³If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife; ⁴her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance. ⁵When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be charged with any business: he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken. ⁶No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge; for he takes a man’s life to pledge. ⁷If a man be found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deal with him as a slave, or sell him; then that thief shall die: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you. ⁸Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do. ⁹Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came forth out of Egypt. ¹⁰When you do lend your neighbor any manner of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. ¹¹You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you do lend shall bring forth the pledge outside to you. ¹²If he be a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge; ¹³you shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God. ¹⁴You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your foreigners who are in your land within your gates: ¹⁵in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you. ¹⁶The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin. ¹⁷You shall not wrest the justice due to the foreigner, or to the fatherless, nor take the widow’s clothing to pledge; ¹⁸but you shall remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there: therefore I command you to do this thing. ¹⁹When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. ²¹When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it after you: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. ²²You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt: therefore I command you to do this thing.