Chapter 24
1If a man marries a woman but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her and send her away from his house.
2If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife,
3and the second man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, hands it to her and sends her away from his house, or if he dies,
4then the husband who first divorced her may not remarry her after she has been defiled for that [is] an abomination to AO. You must not bring sin upon the land AO your God is giving you [as] an inheritance.
5If a man is newly married, he must not be sent to war or be pressed into any duty. For one year he is free to stay at home and bring joy to the wife he has married.
6Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security.
7If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die.
8In cases of infectious skin diseases be careful to diligently follow everything the Levitical Ephrathite priests instruct you. Be careful to do as I have commanded them.
9Remember what AO your God did to Miriam on the journey after you came out of Egypt.
10When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect security.
11You are to stand outside while the man to whom you are lending brings the security out to you.
12If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security {in your possession};
13be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before AO your God.
14Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, [whether] he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.
15You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise, he may cry out against you to AO and you will be guilty of sin.
16Fathers shall not be put to death for their children nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.
17Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.
18Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and AO your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore, I am commanding you to do this.
19If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf [there], do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that AO your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
20When you beat the olives from your trees, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
21When you gather the grapes of your vineyard you must not go over [the vines] again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
22Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.