Deuteronomy 24

The Lord explains the intention of the law, which required a bill of divorce in every case where a wife was put away. The precept not to put away a wife is the opposite of saying that a man may put away his wife if he pleases, which is not what the law says. On the contrary, to prevent the wife from being put away, the law required this intermediate step, that the eagerness for separation might be checked by the writing of this bill and the man might have time to think of the evil of putting away his wife.

To take (accipere) means "to take away." Thus those birds that are eager to seize other birds are called hawks (accipiter). Paul says, "For you bear it, if anyone consumes you, if anyone takes you." The same would be true if he said, if anyone seizes you.The sinner's confession is like the pledge of a debtor. For the pledge is received from the debtor when the sinner makes his confession of sin. The upper and lower millstones in this confession are hope and fear. Hope draws us up to the heights. Fear keeps the heart low. But upper and lower millstones must be joined together; one without the other is useless. Thus in the sinner's confession, hope and fear should always be joined, because the sinner hopes in vain for mercy if he does not also fear justice. In vain did he fear justice if he does not also trust in mercy. Hence merely an upper millstone or a lower millstone alone may not be taken as a pledge. One who preaches to a sinner should compose his sermon with such balance that he does not take away fear by offering hope alone or leave the sinner only in fear by taking away hope. For the upper or lower millstone is taken away if the preacher's tongue separates either fear from hope or hope from fear in the sinner's heart.

Our brother becomes our debtor when our neighbor is shown to have committed some sin against us. For we call sins debts. Thus the sinful servant is told, "I have forgiven you your whole debt." And each day in the Lord's Prayer we pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." We receive a pledge from our debtor when we receive a confession of sin from him who is known to have sinned against us. His confession bids us to forgive the sin he has committed against us. If he confesses the sin he has committed and seeks pardon, he has already given a pledge for his debt. It is no wonder that we are bidden to return the pledge before sunset. Before the sun of justice sets in us because our hearts are grieved, we ought to accept his confession of sin. For it was he who made his confession of guilt to us. He has remembered that he has sinned against us. Let him soon feel forgiveness for his sin from us.