Chapter 24

Does a man take a wife, and then, after making her his own, find some taint of defilement in her, so that he loves her no longer? He must draw up a writ of separation and hand it to her before he sends her away from his house.

Does she, after parting from him, marry a second husband,

who also wearies of her and sends her away with a writ, or perhaps is lost to her by death?

Her first husband may not take her back again, now that she is contaminated, a thing detestable in the Lord’s eyes.1 Do not bring guilt on the land which the Lord gives thee for thy home.

A man newly married will not serve in the wars, or have any other public duty enjoined upon him; he is free to abide at home and cheer his wife for a year’s space.

Thou shalt not accept mill or mill-stone as a debtor’s pledge; that is to let a man pledge his whole livelihood.

If anyone is found leading his fellow-Israelite into a trap,2 and selling him as a slave for profit, he must die; rid thyself of such a plague as that.

Be on thy guard against the visitation of leprosy. Do as the priests of Levi’s race instruct thee at my bidding, and be exact in the performance of it;

never forget how the Lord thy God punished Mary, on thy way here out of Egypt.

When thou wouldst enforce a claim for debt against thy neighbour, do not go into his house to wrest his pledge from him;

stand without, and let him bring thee what he can.

A poor man’s pledge must not spend the night with thee;

give it back to him before set of sun. When he calls down a blessing on thee, glad to have his own cloak to sleep in, it will win thee favour from the Lord thy God.

And if thou hast a hired servant that lives from hand to mouth, be he thy fellow-Israelite, or some alien that shares thy land and city, do not withhold his wages;

pay him his day’s wages before set of sun. It is all he has, in his poverty, to support life with; cries he to the Lord, thou art a sinner manifest.

A father must not die for his son’s guilt, or a son for his father’s; no guilt but his own shall bring a man to death.

Do not refuse alien or orphan his rights at law; do not make the widow give thee her cloak as a pledge;

remember that thou wast once a slave in Egypt, and the Lord thy God rescued thee; with good right I enjoin so much upon thee.

If thou art harvesting the corn in one of thy fields, and a sheaf lies there forgotten, do not go back for it; leave it for the alien, the orphan and the widow; so the Lord thy God will prosper all thy undertakings.

Do not go over thy olive-trees again, the fruit once picked, leave the rest to alien, orphan and widow;

leave to alien, orphan and widow the clusters that hang on thy vines when the vintage is over, still ungathered.

Do not forget that thou wast once a slave in Egypt; not without reason I enjoin this upon thee.