Deuteronomy 24

⁷“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses order a man to give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

⁸Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hardness of heart. But it was not this way from the beginning.

¹This is what the Lord says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

¹³Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her,

⁴They answered, “Moses permitted a man to write his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

⁵But Jesus told them, “Moses wrote this commandment for you because of your hardness of heart.

⁸She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.

¹⁹They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

³²But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

⁹Every vow a widow or divorced woman pledges to fulfill is binding on her.

⁷A priest must not marry a woman defiled by prostitution or divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.

¹³But if a priest’s daughter with no children becomes widowed or divorced and returns to her father’s house, she may share her father’s food as in her youth. But no outsider may share it.

¹⁴He is not to marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people,

¹⁵But if the unbeliever leaves, let him go. The believing brother or sister is not bound in such cases. God has called you to live in peace.

¹“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the Lord.

¹⁸May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

⁷Has any man become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man marry her.”

²⁴For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

⁴In this way they can train the young women to love their husbands and children,

⁵to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited.

⁶However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’

⁷‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,

⁴Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’

⁵and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?

¹⁹When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them?

¹⁵And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

²²And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never ring out in you again. Nor will any craftsmen of any trade be found in you again, nor the sound of a millstone be heard in you again.

³⁰So if the boy is not with us when I return to your servant, and if my father, whose life is wrapped up in the boy’s life,

²⁶If you take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him by sunset,

²⁷because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? And if he cries out to Me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

¹⁶Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession.

¹⁰for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching

¹³of cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; of wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; of cattle, sheep, horses, and carriages; of bodies and souls of slaves.

¹“If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters or sells it, he must repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.

²If a thief is caught breaking in and is beaten to death, no one shall be guilty of bloodshed.

¹³Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your merchants. They exchanged slaves and bronze utensils for your merchandise.

¹⁹you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. So you must purge the evil from among you.

²“This is the law for the one afflicted with a skin disease on the day of his cleansing, when he is brought to the priest.

⁴⁴“See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering Moses prescribed for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

⁴Then Jesus instructed him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift prescribed by Moses, as a testimony to them.”

⁵⁷But if it reappears in the fabric, weave, or knit, or on any leather article, it is spreading. You must burn the contaminated article.

¹⁴“Do not tell anyone,” Jesus instructed him. “But go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering Moses prescribed for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

¹⁴When Jesus saw them, He said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were on their way, they were cleansed.

¹⁰As the cloud lifted from above the Tent, suddenly Miriam became leprous, white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she was leprous,

¹¹and said to Moses, “My lord, please do not hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed.

¹¹Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

²⁰When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him and saw his leprous forehead, they rushed him out. Indeed, he himself hurried to get out, because the Lord had afflicted him.

²¹So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in isolation, leprous and cut off from the house of the Lord, while his son Jotham had charge of the royal palace and governed the people of the land.

²“Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.

³Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate, and they said to one another, “Why just sit here until we die?

⁸Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him whatever he needs.

²⁷because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? And if he cries out to Me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

¹⁷Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.

²⁵And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”

²⁷Therefore, may my advice be pleasing to you, O king. Break away from your sins by doing what is right, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.”

²⁶If you take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him by sunset,

²⁷because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? And if he cries out to Me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

¹⁵You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

⁹He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be lifted high in honor.

⁸Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

⁵“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the Lord of Hosts.

³¹Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him.

¹⁶Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich will surely lead to poverty.

¹⁰Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.

¹¹They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.

¹Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink.”

¹³If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me,

¹⁴what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?

¹³You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.

²⁷Do not withhold good from the deserving when it is within your power to act.

²⁸Do not tell your neighbor, “Come back tomorrow and I will provide”—when you already have the means.

⁴Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

¹³“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,

⁹Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

⁹Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.

²⁰The soul who sins is the one who will die. A son will not bear the iniquity of his father, and a father will not bear the iniquity of his son. The righteousness of the righteous man will fall upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked man will fall upon him.

⁴Yet he did not put their sons to death, but acted according to what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded: “Fathers must not be put to death for their children, and children must not be put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.”

²⁹“In those days, it will no longer be said: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.’

³⁰Instead, each will die for his own iniquity. If anyone eats the sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge.

⁵As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, Amaziah executed the servants who had murdered his father the king.

⁶Yet he did not put the sons of the murderers to death, but acted according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, where the Lord commanded: “Fathers must not be put to death for their children, and children must not be put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.”

¹⁹Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

⁶You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits.

²¹You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

²²You must not mistreat any widow or orphan.

¹⁹‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

⁹Do not oppress a foreign resident, since you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

³Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.

¹⁵Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

¹⁵Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today.

²²Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

¹²Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully follow these statutes.

²²When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident. I am the Lord your God.’”

¹⁷Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and He will repay the lender.

⁹When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

¹⁰You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

¹³But when you host a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind,

¹⁴and you will be blessed. Since they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

²⁹Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the Lord your God will bless you in all the work of your hands.

³⁸Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

¹⁰You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

¹⁹If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

⁹When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

¹⁰You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from that place. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.

⁸But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

¹⁴but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do.

¹⁵Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

¹Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children,

²and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.

⁸I am not giving a command, but I am testing the sincerity of your love through the earnestness of others.

⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

¹⁰And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.