Глава 24

Laws: on divorce; on the benefits of the newlywed in relation to military service; about pledges; about the forced enslavement of a person; on taking precautions against leprosy; about not withholding payment to day laborers; about everyone's responsibility for their own sin; about justice; about charity. Deut.24:1. If someone takes a wife and becomes her husband, and she does not find favor in his eyes because he finds something nasty in her, and writes her a letter of divorce, and gives her into her hands, and sends her away from his house, Deut.24:2. and she will leave his house and go and marry another husband, Deut.24:3. but this last husband will hate her and write her a letter of divorce, and give it into her hands, and let her leave his house, or this last husband of hers, who took her as his wife, will die - Deut.24:4. then her first husband, who sent her away, cannot take her again as his wife after she has been defiled, for this is an abomination to the Lord [your God], and not a desecration of the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. The husband had the right to give his wife “a letter of divorce and release her from his home,” that is, to formally divorce her, in the case when “she does not find favor in his eyes, because he finds something disgusting in her,” in other words, he encounters such physical or moral shortcomings that make the continuation of the marriage either impossible or very difficult. There could be no question of the wife’s adultery as a reason for divorce: according to the meaning of Deut. 22.20–22, adulterers were subject to the death penalty. Anyone who married a girl he had seduced, as well as someone who unjustly slandered his wife because she was not virgin at the time of her (first) marriage, was forever deprived of the right to divorce (Deut. 22.13–19, 28–29). The Mosaic Law makes no mention of divorce initiated by the wife. This circumstance gives rise to some scientists to assume that the latter was deprived of this right. But this conclusion is hardly fair. If a concubine deprived of “food, clothing, and companionship” (Ex. 21.10–11) had the right to leave her husband, that is, to divorce him, then even more so a plump wife. Ev. Mark 10.11–12 seems to confirm this assumption. The rabbis, firmly rooted in Hebrew tradition, assert that the wife had the right to demand a divorce: 1) if her husband deprived her of conjugal intercourse; 2) in cases of ten years of childlessness, if it is proven that the cause of the latter is the husband; 3) in the case of physical disabilities or 4) moral qualities of the spouse that make the continuation of the marriage impossible; 5) in case of a contagious illness of the husband; 6) in the case of the spouse’s main occupation or craft that the wife does not like. If those who were divorced did not then enter into a second marriage, they could unite again as husband and wife (Articles 2–4). Otherwise, a secondary marriage of divorced spouses was not allowed. Deut.24:5. If someone has recently taken a wife, then he should not go to war, and nothing should be placed on him; let him remain free in his house for one year and please his wife, whom he has taken. Deut.24:6. No one should take the upper or lower millstone as collateral, for such a person takes the soul as collateral. The millstone of a hand mill is a necessary accessory for everyday life in the East. It is fair to assume that the legalization, specifically expressed in the example of the hand mill, extended to other essential items in the household. Deut.24:7. If anyone is found to have stolen one of his brothers, from the children of Israel, and enslaved him and sold him, then such a thief must be put to death; and so destroy evil from among you. Deut.24:8. See that in the plague of leprosy, be careful to observe and do all [the law] that the Levitical priests will teach you; do carefully what I commanded them; Deut.24:9. Remember that the Lord your God made Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt. Deut.24:10. If you lend something to your neighbor, do not go to his house to take the pledge from him, Deut.24:11. stand on the street, and the one to whom you lent will bring you his pledge to the street; Submitting to a feeling of greed, the creditor, upon entering the debtor's house, could take as collateral an item whose value far exceeds the loan. Deut.24:12. But if he is a poor man, then do not go to bed with his pledge: Deut.24:13. return the deposit to him at sunset, so that he can go to bed in his clothes and bless you, and this will be established for you as righteousness before the Lord your God. Wed. Ref. 22.25–27. A heavy outer cloak, which can be dispensed with during the day, is essential at night as a means of protection from the cold; for the poor it is the only one. It is absolutely forbidden to take any clothing from a widow as collateral (v. 17). Deut.24:14. Thou shalt not wrong the hired hand, the poor and the needy, one of thy brethren, or one of thy strangers who are in thy land, in thy gates; Deut.24:15. give him his wages that same day, so that the sun does not set first, for he is poor, and his soul is waiting for her; so that he does not cry out against you to the Lord, and there is no sin on you. Deut.24:16. Fathers should not be punished with death for their children, and children should not be punished with death for their fathers; everyone must be punished with death for his crime. The principle of human judgment. The latter's assimilation of the prerogatives of divine judgment, which sometimes punishes fathers in their offspring (Ex. 20:5, 34:7), could lead to injustice. Deut.24:17. Do not judge wrongly the stranger, the orphan [or the widow], and do not take the widow’s clothing as collateral; Wed. Ref. 22:21–24, 23:9; Lion. 19:33–36, 19–22. Wed. Lev.19:9, 10, 23:22. You might be interested in: