Deuteronomy 24
ECFDeuteronomy 24:1
Augustine of Hippo: 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. — AGAINST FAUSTUS, A MANICHAEAN 19.26
Deuteronomy 24:6
Paterius: 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. — EXPOSITION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT, Deuteronomy 16
Deuteronomy 24:8
Augustine of Hippo: According to all the law that the Levitical priests have sworn to you. It is shown here that every priest was a Levite, although not every Levite was a priest. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 40 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Deuteronomy 24:10
Augustine of Hippo: If your neighbor owed you something, whatever it is, you will not go into his house to take the pledge: you will be left out, and the man who owes you something will take the pledge out. But if the man is in need, you will not sleep in his garment. You will return her dress without fail to the sunset and sleep in her dress, and she will bless you and have mercy before the Lord your God. It is clear that it belongs to works of mercy that does not enter the house of the neighbor who makes a loan, so as not to cause a disturbance to the debtor. But for this very reason the debtor is also advised to take out the pledge to give it to the creditor. With respect to the mandate to return the pledge to the homeless on the same day, so that he can sleep on it who does not have anywhere to sleep, it is worth noting that the creditor has not been sent to take the pledge that must be returned. the same day. And if this has been preferred to do so to force the debtor, how are you urged to return a piece of clothing that you know you will receive the same day? Has the legislator perhaps intended to do so to remind you not to forget the return and not return when you do not really have the thing? And we say this especially because he is forced by the work of mercy of his creditor towards who should not be ungrateful, if he has received the pledge in which he can sleep. The creditor, for his part, when the other has not returned the pledge, must believe that he does not have it; for that man also needs that work of mercy so that the garment is returned to him, since he has no other place to sleep. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 41 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Deuteronomy 24:13
Paterius: 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. — EXPOSITION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT, Deuteronomy 17
Deuteronomy 24:16
Augustine of Hippo: The parents will not die for the children nor will the children die for the parents: each one will die in his sin. This is not only what the prophets have said (Cf Ez 18,18-20). The law itself says that each one will perish through his fault, not that of his father or that of his son. What does it mean what is said in another place: God who punishes the sins of the parents in the children until the third and fourth generation? (Exodus 20,5) Is that understood perhaps from the unborn children because of original sin, that the gender Is human also dragged from Adam, and here, on the other hand, has the distinction of the already born children been made, so that each one dies for his sin? Well, it draws nothing from the father who was already born when his father sinned. But when it is also said there: to those who hate me, it is clear that that condition can also be changed, if the children had not imitated the actions of their parents. For even what comes from Adam is temporarily imputed, because everyone dies for it, but eternally imputed to those who have been regenerated spiritually by grace and have remained in it until the end. But if the sins of the parents in the children are imputed to those who hate God, it could also be asked with all reason why they are imputed until the third and fourth generation, leaving aside the first and second, or why not they impute also to the other generations, if the impiety and the imitation of the bad parents remain. Or did you want to indicate the totality with this number, because the seven is understood and the number seven itself has not been put to say: “until the seventh generation”, and thus the totality would be understood, since in this way it was indicated more Well the cause of the perfection of this number? This number is considered perfect precisely because it consists of these two, that is, number three, odd in its entirety, and number four, even in its entirety. I think that this prophetic oracle is also derived from here, which is repeated many times: by the three, by the four iniquities, I will not throw myself back (Amos 1,3). With this phrase it has been wanted to indicate all the iniquities, rather than to indicate that they were three or four. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 42 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Deuteronomy 24:17
Augustine of Hippo: You will not twist the judgment of the stranger or the orphan or the widow. You will not take the widow’s dress as a pledge. Why do not you say: And you will not take their clothes as a pledge? What is the reason why it has been forbidden to twist the judgment of these three and, on the other hand, have only been forbidden to take the garment of the widow as a pledge, and not that of the others? The reason why it is recommended to make the judgments of all is because they have no one to defend them, nor the stranger, because he is in a foreign land, nor the orphan, that is, the pupil, because he has no parents, nor the widow, because He has no husband. On the other hand, when it is forbidden to wear the widow’s dress as a pledge, I think that she warns elegantly that only those who are poor should be called truly widows. To this the Apostle also clearly alludes, when he says: But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let her first learn to practice the duties of piety with those of her own house and to correspond with her parents; because this is pleasing to the Lord. But the one who is truly a widow and is desolate, has placed her hope in the Lord and perseveres in her prayers night and day (1Tm 5,4.5). She calls the widow truly the one who does not support her, because she is deprived not only of her husband, but of descendants and of all help. Of course I would not call a desolate woman rich. The poor one does not have to take off the dress he has in pledge; because the law states that he is poor because he forbids his dress to be taken away from him. For the creditor would rather remove the money or anything else from the dress. But if one thought to think: if she had many unnecessary dresses, but superfluous, how is it understood that she is a true widow, that is, not only desolate, but also alien to a life in the midst of delights? About this widow the Apostle adds: The one who lives in the midst of delights, even when living, is dead (1Tm 5,6). And this widow opposes her to the real widow, and says that she is not a true widow. In wealthy widows, who have not remarried, continence is praised, its desolation is not proclaimed. For these widows are only deprived of a husband, not of other things. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 43 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Deuteronomy 24:19
Pseudo-Basil: [Of old,] it was wicked and unlawful to gather the sheaves left after the harvest, or to glean the vines after the vintage or to gather up the olives that remain after the trees were picked, because these things were to be left for the poor. Now if this was commanded those who were under the law, what shall we say of those who are in Christ? To them the Lord says, “Unless your justice abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” — ON MERCY AND JUSTICE
Augustine of Hippo: In relation to what the Scripture says that in the collection nobody picks up the forgotten bundle and that nobody picks up the abandoned olive or grape again, doing the gleaning of the abandoned things, because that has to be left for the poor, it is presented Maybe the interrogation, and what should be done if what the owners of the fields leave is not picked up by the poor, but by the bad ones? In the first place, it is necessary to consider that the work moved by an act of mercy abandons those things with the intention that it is for the poor what it abandons. Secondly, when these things are sent to the people, at the same time those who do not need it are recommended not to look for those abandoned things. And if they seek them, what should we think they do but take control of things from others, and, what is even more serious, of the things of the poor? With these precepts alludes to two categories of people: to the owners of the fields, so that they leave those things mercifully; to those who are not poor, so that they refrain from collecting them. Both things are said in the text: that is, who should leave them, and for whom they should be left. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 44 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)