The Bible

Deuteronomy Chapter 24

¹When a man gets a wife and marries her, then if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, he is to write her a certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send her out of his house. ²When she has left his house, she may go and be another man's [wife]. ³If the latter husband hates her, and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife; ⁴her former husband, who sent her away, may not have her again to be his wife after she was defiled; for that would be an abomination to Yahweh. Don't cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance. ⁵When a man gets a new wife, he is not to go out with the army, nor should he be assigned any duty. He is to be free at home for one year, and rejoice with the wife he's taken.

⁶No one may take a mill or upper millstone as a pledge, for that would be taking a life as a pledge.

⁷If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he treats him as a slave, or sells him, then that thief must die. In this way you'll remove the evil from among you.

⁸Be careful with the plague of leprosy. Diligently keep and do all that the Levitical priests teach you. You must observe to do just as I commanded them. ⁹Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, on the journey as you came from Egypt.

¹⁰When you lend your neighbor any kind of loan, don't go into his house to get his pledge. ¹¹Stand outside, and the man you are lending to will bring the pledge out to you. ¹²If he is a poor man, don't sleep with his pledge. ¹³You must surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, so that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. It is righteousness before Yahweh your God.

¹⁴Don't oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. ¹⁵Pay him his wages [on the same] day before the sun goes down, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, otherwise he might cry against you to Yahweh, and [it would be] sin [for you].

¹⁶Fathers must not be put to death [for their] children, nor children put to death [for their] fathers. Every man is to be put to death for his own sin.

¹⁷Don't deprive a foreigner or fatherless of justice, or take a widow's clothing in pledge; ¹⁸but remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed [you from] there. Therefore I command you to do this.

¹⁹When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, don't go back to get it. [Leave it for] the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰When you beat your olive tree, don't go over the boughs again. It's for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

²¹When you harvest your vineyard, don't glean it afterwards yourselves. It's for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. ²²Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. [That's why] I command you to do this thing.