Divorce, Pledges, Wages, and the Vulnerable

"When a man hath taken a wife… and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand." If she marries another and he too divorces her or dies, "her former husband… may not take her again to be his wife."

"When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war… he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife." "No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to pledge." A creditor must not enter his neighbor's house for a pledge; and if the man is poor, "thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment."

"Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy… At his day thou shalt give him his hire… for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it." "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin." When you reap and forget a sheaf, leave it; do not go over the olive branches or grapes a second time: "it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt."

What the divorce law says

Deuteronomy 24:1–4 does not command divorce; it assumes divorce happens with a written certificate and forbids one specific thing, remarriage to the first husband after an intervening marriage. The grounds, "some uncleanness" ('ervat davar, "a matter of nakedness"), became a famous dispute: the school of Shammai read it as sexual misconduct only; the school of Hillel allowed divorce for lesser causes (Mishnah Gittin 9:10). When Jesus is asked, he answers that Moses permitted it "because of the hardness of your hearts: but from the beginning it was not so" (Matthew 19:3–9; Mark 10:2–12).

Marriage and divorce documents survive from the Jewish community at Elephantine in Egypt (5th century BC), where either spouse could declare a divorce, and from the Judean Desert (2nd century AD), including a bill of divorce from Murabbaʿat (Mur 19, AD 71/72). They show such certificates in use; they are later than and different from the law.

Wages and pledges in the ancient world

A 7th-century BC ostracon from Mesad Hashavyahu (Yavneh-Yam) records a field worker's complaint to an official that his cloak was taken: "your servant was reaping… and he took your servant's garment… please return my garment." It shows the kind of situation 24:12–13 and Exodus 22:26–27 address, from the real life of a Judahite worker.

Each for his own sin

2 Kings 14:6 says King Amaziah did not kill the sons of his father's murderers, quoting this law. Ezekiel 18 develops the same principle. Hammurabi's laws, by contrast, could punish a builder's son if a house collapsed and killed the owner's son (§230).