Ulangan 23:15-16

Purity in the Treatment of the Nonprivileged

23:15 You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he has run away to you. ¹  23:16 Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages ²  he prefers; you must not oppress him.

Ulangan 21:10-14

Laws Concerning Wives

21:10 When you go out to do battle with your enemies and the Lord your God allows you to prevail ³  and you take prisoners, 21:11 if you should see among them ⁴  an attractive woman whom you wish to take as a wife, 21:12 you may bring her back to your house. She must shave her head, ⁵  trim her nails, 21:13 discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, ⁶  and stay ⁷  in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations ⁸  with her and become her husband and she your wife. 21:14 If you are not pleased with her, then you must let her go ⁹  where she pleases. You cannot in any case sell ¹⁰  her; ¹¹  you must not take advantage of ¹²  her, since you have already humiliated ¹³  her.

Ulangan 24:6

24:6 One must not take either lower or upper millstones as security on a loan, for that is like taking a life itself as security. ¹⁴ 

Ulangan 24:10-13

24:10 When you make any kind of loan to your neighbor, you may not go into his house to claim what he is offering as security. ¹⁵  24:11 You must stand outside and the person to whom you are making the loan will bring out to you what he is offering as security. ¹⁶  24:12 If the person is poor you may not use what he gives you as security for a covering. ¹⁷  24:13 You must by all means ¹⁸  return to him at sunset the item he gave you as security so that he may sleep in his outer garment and bless you for it; it will be considered a just ¹⁹  deed by the Lord your God.

Ulangan 24:19-22

24:19 Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there, ²⁰  you must not return to get it; it should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow so that the Lord your God may bless all the work you do. ²¹  24:20 When you beat your olive tree you must not repeat the procedure; ²²  the remaining olives belong to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow. 24:21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard you must not do so a second time; ²³  they should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow. 24:22 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt; therefore, I am commanding you to do all this.

[23:15]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text includes “from his master,” but this would be redundant in English style.

[23:16]  ² tn Heb “gates.”

[21:10]  ³ tn Heb “gives him into your hands.”

[21:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “the prisoners.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.

[21:12]  ⁵ sn This requirement for the woman to shave her head may symbolize the putting away of the old life and customs in preparation for being numbered among the people of the Lord. The same is true for the two following requirements.

[21:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “she is to…remove the clothing of her captivity” (cf. NASB); NRSV “discard her captive’s garb.”

[21:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “sit”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “remain.”

[21:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “go unto,” a common Hebrew euphemism for sexual relations.

[21:14]  ⁹ sn Heb “send her off.” The Hebrew term שִׁלַּחְתָּה (shillakhtah) is a somewhat euphemistic way of referring to divorce, the matter clearly in view here (cf. Deut 22:19, 29; 24:1, 3; Jer 3:1; Mal 2:16). This passage does not have the matter of divorce as its principal objective, so it should not be understood as endorsing divorce generally. It merely makes the point that if grounds for divorce exist (see Deut 24:1-4), and then divorce ensues, the husband could in no way gain profit from it.

[21:14]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by the words “in any case.”

[21:14]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text includes “for money.” This phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:14]  ¹² tn Or perhaps “must not enslave her” (cf. ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); Heb “[must not] be tyrannical over.”

[21:14]  ¹³ sn You have humiliated her. Since divorce was considered rejection, the wife subjected to it would “lose face” in addition to the already humiliating event of having become a wife by force (21:11-13). Furthermore, the Hebrew verb translated “humiliated” here (עָנָה, ’anah), commonly used to speak of rape (cf. Gen 34:2; 2 Sam 13:12, 14, 22, 32; Judg 19:24), likely has sexual overtones as well. The woman may not be enslaved or abused after the divorce because it would be double humiliation (see also E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy [NAC], 291).

[24:6]  ¹⁴ sn Taking millstones as security on a loan would amount to taking the owner’s own life in pledge, since the millstones were the owner’s means of earning a living and supporting his family.

[24:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his pledge.” This refers to something offered as pledge of repayment, i.e., as security for the debt.

[24:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his pledge.”

[24:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “may not lie down in his pledge.” What is in view is the use of clothing as guarantee for the repayment of loans, a matter already addressed elsewhere (Deut 23:19-20; 24:6; cf. Exod 22:25-26; Lev 25:35-37). Cf. NAB “you shall not sleep in the mantle he gives as a pledge”; NRSV “in the garment given you as the pledge.”

[24:13]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation seeks to reflect with “by all means.”

[24:13]  ¹⁹ tn Or “righteous” (so NIV, NLT).

[24:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in the field.”

[24:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “of your hands.” This law was later applied in the story of Ruth who, as a poor widow, was allowed by generous Boaz to glean in his fields (Ruth 2:1-13).

[24:20]  ²² tn Heb “knock down after you.”

[24:21]  ²³ tn Heb “glean after you.”