Deuteronomy 24

WHen a man has taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes (i. e.) He dislike and loath her. It is a figure called Melosis, whereby more is understood than is expressed, as Prov. 10. 2. and 17. 21. and 24. 23., because he has found some uncleanness Heb. nakedness, or shamefulness, or filthiness of a thing, i. e. some filthy or hateful thing, some loathsome distemper of body or quality of mind not observed before Marriage: Or some light and unchast carriage, as this or the like phrase commonly signifies, but not amounting to Adultery, which was not punished with divorce, but with death. in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house Which is not a command to divorce them, as some of the Jews understood it, nor an allowance and approbation, as plainly appears not only from the New Testment, Matth. 5. 31, 32. and 19. 8, 9. But also from the old Testament, Gen. 2. 24. Mal. 2. 16. but merely a permission or toleration of that practise for prevention of greater mischiefs and cruelties of that hard hearted people towards their Wives, and this only for a season, even until the time of reformation, as it is called Heb. 9. 10. i. e. till the coming of the Messias, when things were to return to their first institution and purest condition. The Husband is not here commanded to put her away, but if he do put her away, he is commanded to write and give her a bill of divorcement, before he send her out of his house. And though it be true, as our Saviour observes, that Moses did suffer these divorces, to wit, without punishing them, which also is here implyed, yet it must be acknowledged, that if we consult the Hebrew words, those three first verses may seem to be only a supposition, and the words rendred, then let him write her, in the Hebrew run thus, and has written her, and so it follows ver. 2. And she be departed out of his house, and be gone and become another mans wife; Then follows ver. 3. which, even according to our translation, carries on the supposition, And if the later husband hate her, &c. Then follows the position or prohibition ver. 4..

And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another mans wife For although he could not causelessly put her away without sin, yet she being put away and forsaken by her husband might marry another without sin, as is determined in the same or a like case, 1 Cor. 7. 15..

And if the later husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it her in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house: or if the later husband die, which took her to be his wife:

Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again This is the punishment of his levity and injustice in putting her away without sufficient cause, which by this offer he now acknowledgeth. to be his wife after that she is defiled Not simply and absolutely, as if her second Marriage were a sin, but respectively, or as to her first husband, to whom she is as a defiled or unclean woman, that is, forbidden, for things forbidden are accounted and called unclean, Iudg. 13. 7. because they may no more be touched or used than an unclean thing.: for that is abomination before the LORD, and thou shalt not cause the land to sin (i. e.) Thou shalt not suffer such abhominable lightness and lewdness to be practised, least the people be polluted and the land defiled and accursed by that means., which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business (i. e.) Any publick office or employment, which may cause an absence from or neglect of his Wife.: but he shall be free at home one year That their affections newly engaged may be firmly settled so as there may be no occasions for the divorces last mentioned., and shall chear up his wife which he has taken.

No man shall take the nether or the upper milstone Used in their handmills, of which see Exod. 11. 5. Numb. 11. 28. Ier. 25. 10. Under this one kind he understands all other things necessary to get a livelihood, the taking away whereof is against the Laws both of charity and prudence, seeing by those things alone he can be enabled both to subsist and to pay his debts. to pledge: for he taketh a mans life (i. e.) His livelihood, or the necessary supports of his life. to pledge.

If a man be found stealing any of his brethren See on Exod. 21. 16. of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him: then that thief shall die, and thou shalt put evil away from among you.

Take heed in the plague of leprosie, that thou observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them By which words he plainly intimates, that they were not only to have an eye to the Levites instructions, but also and especially unto the word and command of God, and that if the Levites sentence were manifestly contrary to the command of God, it were not to be obeyed. As now if a Levite or Priest should for fear or favour or gain pronounce a person to be clean who were really and manifestly unclean, and had the unquestionable marks of leprosie upon him, I suppose no man in his wits will question, but every man that saw and knew this were bound to avoid the touching of him, and that if he did touch him he should be defiled by it., so ye shall observe to do.

Remember what the LORD thy God did unto Miriam Whom God smote with leprosie for her contempt of Moses, and therefore thou maist expect the same or like punishment if thou dost despise the counsel and direction of the Levites which I have set over thee and commanded thee to observe in this and the like matters. by the way after that ye were come forth out of Egypt.

When thou doest lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge To prevent both the poor mans reproach by having his wants exposed to view, and the creditors insolence and greediness which might be occasioned by the sight of something which he desired and the debtour could not spare..

Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou doest lend, shall bring out the pledg He shall choose what pledge he please, provided only it be sufficient for the purpose. abroad unto thee.

And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledg But restore it before night, which intimates that he should take no such thing for pledge without which a man cannot sleep, since it were an idle thing to fetch it and carry it every day. See on Exod. 22. 26, 27.:

In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledg again, when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee Instrumentally, as ministers are said to convert and save sinners, to wit, bring down the blessing of God upon thee by his prayers: for though his prayers, if he be not a good man, shall not avail for his own behalf, yet they shall avail for thy benefit.: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the LORD thy God (i. e.) Esteemed and accepted by God as a work of righteousness, or holiness, or goodness and mercy, which oft is called righteousness, as Psal. 112. 9. Prov. 10. 2. Dan. 4. 27..

Thou shalt not oppress an h... ed servant Either by laying too grievous burdens of work upon him, or by with-holding his wages from him, as it follows. that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates.

At his day At the time appointed, weekly or daily. thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it To wit, after the day upon which it is due, and desired or demanded by him, for justice must not be denied nor delayed., for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it u, lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee. y Heb. lifteth up his soul to it, which notes his great desire and hope of it, and his dependance upon it: See Psal. 24. 4. Ier. 22. 27.

The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers Understand it thus, if the one be free from the guilt of the others sin, and except in those cases where the soveraign Lord of Life and Death, before whom none is innocent, has commanded it, as Deut. 13. Ios. 7. 24. For this law is given to men, not to God, and though God do visit the fathers sins upon the children, Exod. 20. yet he will not suffer men to do so.: every man shall be put to death for his own sin Understand only, and not for any other mans sin..

Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless Nor of the widow, which is to be supplied out of the last member; nor indeed of any other person, but he particularly mentions these, partly because men are most apt to wrong such helpless persons, and partly because God is pleased especially to charge himself, and so to charge others, with the care of those who have no other refuge. See Isa. 1. 23. Ier. 5. 28., nor take a widows raiment To wit, such an one as she has daily and necessary use of, as being poor, as may appear by comparing this with ver. 12, 13. and with other places. But this concerns not rich persons, nor superfluous raiment. to pledg.

But thou shalt remember To wit, affectionately and practically, and by thy compassionate sense of others miseries thou shalt make it evident that thou hast not forgotten thy own distresses and deliverances. I having thereby authority to command thee, and thou having obligations on that account both to obey me and to pity others in the same calamities which thou hast felt. that thou wast a bond-man in Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing e.

When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.

When thou beatest thine olive-tree With staves, as they used to do to fetch down the olives., thou shalt not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard; thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bond-man in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing.