Deuteronomy 24 (Laws for Lending to the Poor)

Deuteronomy Chapter 24

Laws for Lending to the Poor
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1 And if thou shouldest go into thy corn field of thy neighbour, then thou mayest gather the ears with thy hands; but thou shalt not put the sickle to thy neighbour’s corn. 2 And if thou shouldest go into the vineyard of thy neighbour, thou shalt eat grapes sufficient to satisfy thy desire; but thou mayest not put them into a vessel.

The law forbidding remarriage

3 And if any one should take a wife, and should dwell with her, then it shall come to pass if she should have not found favour before him, because he has found some unbecoming thing in her, that he shall write for her a bill of divorcement, and give it into her hands, and he shall send her away out of his house. 4 And if she should go away and be married to another man; 5 and the last husband should hate her, and write for her a bill of divorcement; and should give it into her hands, and send her away out of his house, and the last husband should die, who took her to himself for a wife; 6 the former husband who sent her away shall not be able to return and take her to himself for a wife, after she has been defiled; because it is an abomination before the Lord thy God, and ye shall not defile the land, which the Lord thy God gives thee to inherit.

The law for the newlyweds

7 And if any one should have recently taken a wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall any thing be laid upon him; he shall be free in his house; for one year he shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.

Laws for lenders to the poor

8 Thou shalt not take for a pledge under millstone, nor the upper millstone; for he who does so takes life for a pledge. 9 And if a man should be caught stealing one of his brethren of the children of Israel, and having overcome him he should sell him, that thief shall die; so shalt thou remove that evil one from yourselves. 10 Take heed to thyself in regard of the plague of leprosy: thou shalt take great heed to do according to all the law, which the priests the Levites shall report to you; take heed to do, as I have charged you. 11 Remember all that the Lord thy God did to Mariam in the way, when ye were going out of Egypt.

12 If thy neighbour owe thee a debt, any debt whatsoever, thou shalt not go into his house to take his pledge: 13 thou shalt stand without, and the man who is in thy debt shall bring the pledge out to thee. 14 And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge. 15 Thou shalt surely restore his pledge at sunset, and he shall sleep in his garment, and he shall bless thee; and it shall be mercy to thee before the Lord thy God. 16 Thou shalt not unjustly withhold wages of the poor and needy of thy brethren, or of the strangers who are in thy cities. 17 Thou shalt pay him his wages the same day, the sun shall not go down upon it, because he is poor and he trusts in it; and he shall cry against thee to the Lord, and it shall be sin in thee. 18 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, and the sons shall not be put to death for the fathers; every one shall be put to death for his own sin. 19 Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the stranger and the fatherless, and window; thou shalt not take the widow’s garment for a pledge. 20 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee from thence; therefore I charge thee to do this thing.

21 And when thou shalt have reaped corn in thy field, and shalt have forgotten a sheaf in thy field, thou shalt not return to take it; it shall be for the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the works of thy hands. 22 And if thou shouldest gather thine olives, thou shalt not return to collect the remaineder; it shall be for the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, and thou shalt remember that thou as a bondman in the land of Egypt; therefore I command thee to do this thing. 23 And whensoever thou shalt gather the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean what thou has left; it shall be for the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow: 24 and thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt; therefore I command thee to do this thing.