Various Laws

Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns. 

If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,

and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man,

and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies,

then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.

Do not take a pair of millstones-not even the upper one-as security for a debt, because that would be taking a man's livelihood as security.

If a man is caught kidnapping one of his brother Israelites and treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.

In cases of leprous diseases be very careful to do exactly as the priests, who are Levites, instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them.

Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.

When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into his house to get what he is offering as a pledge.

Stay outside and let the man to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you.

If the man is poor, do not go to sleep with his pledge in your possession.

Return his cloak to him by sunset so that he may sleep in it. Then he will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the LORD your God.

Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns.

Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.

Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.

Various Laws

Key Passages

About this Chapter