Deuteronomy 24

1 a bill of divorcement. This law was intended to restrain bad practices which had gone far to annul the original law of marriage, and which still prevail among the Arabs, who not only allow a man by a word to dissolve the marriage tie, but also require that the divorced woman shall have been married to another man before her husband can take her back. Vers. 1-4 should read as one sentence, thus: “When a man, etc., let him write her, etc. (1); and she depart, etc., and go and become another man’s, etc. (2); and the latter, etc. (3); then her former,” etc. To correct the then prevailing custom, Moses allows a wife to be divorced only by a legal document, and forbids her husband to take her back after she had been married to another. For the law of Christ on this subject, see Matt. v. 31, 32; xix. 7-9.

6 a man’s life. It was necessary, in order to grind the corn for his family. The ancient common law of England provides that no man shall be distrained of the utensils or instruments of his trade or profession—as the axe of a carpenter, or the books of a scholar, or beasts used for the plough, as long as there are other things upon which distress can be made.

7 stealing. See notes on Exod. xxi. 1-6.

10 thou shalt not go into his house. The sacredness thus given to the poor man’s home strikingly illustrates the humane spirit of these laws.

13 righteousness. A good and righteous deed in the sight of God.

15. At his day, etc. Probably it is to this merciful command that we should trace the present practice in Palestine and the neighbouring countries of ending work at sunset, and paying wages daily. Luther translates, “Thou shalt give him his day’s pay.”

16. The fathers, etc. This would tend to prevent wholesale massacres and hereditary blood-feuds.

18 thou shalt remember, etc. The spirit of this and the following precepts is beautifully expressed by our Lord: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matt. vii. 12).