Deuteronomy 24:4 Kommentar

In this chapter we have, I. The toleration of divorce (Deu 24:1-4). II. A discharge of new-married men from the war (Deu 24:5). III. Laws concerning pledges (Deu 24:6, Deu 24:10-13, Deu 24:17). IV. Against man-stealing (Deu 24:7). V. Concerning the leprosy (Deu 24:8, Deu 24:9). VI. Against the injustice of masters towards their servants (Deu 24:14, Deu 24:15). Judges in capital causes (Deu 24:16), and civil concerns (Deu 24:17, Deu 24:18). VII. Of charity to the poor (Deu 24:19, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 24 This chapter contains various laws concerning divorces, Deu 24:1; the discharge of a newly married man from war and business, Deu 24:5; about taking pledges, Deu 24:6; man stealing, Deu 24:7; the plague of leprosy, Deu 24:8; and giving servants their hire in due time, Deu 24:14; concerning doing justice in capital cases, and towards the stranger, fatherless, and widow, Deu 24:16; and of charity to the poor, in allowing them the forgotten sheaf, and the gleanings of their oliveyards and vineyards, Deu 24:19.

Her former husband which sent her away may not take her again to be his wife,.... Though ever so desirous of it, and having heartily repented that he had put her away: this is the punishment of his fickleness and inconstancy, and was ordered to make men cautious how they put away their wives; since when they had so done, and they had been married to another, they could not enjoy them again even on the death of the second husband; yea, though she was only espoused to him, and he had never lain with her, as Ben Melech observes, it was forbidden the former husband to marry her; though if she had only played the whore, according to the same writer, and others (a), she might return to him: after that she is defiled; not by whoredom, for in that case she was not forbidden, as it is interpreted, but by her being married to another man; when she was defiled, not by him, or with respect to him, nor with regard to any other man, whom she might lawfully marry after the decease of her latter husband; but with respect to her first husband, being by her divorce from him, and by her marriage to another, entirely alienated and separated from him, and so prohibited to him; and thus R. Joseph Kimchi interprets this defilement of prohibition, things prohibited being reckoned unclean, or not lawful to be used: for that is abomination before the Lord; for a man to take his wife again, after she had been divorced by him, and married to another man; and yet, such is the grace and goodness of God to his backsliding people, that he receives them when they return unto him their first husband, and forsake other lovers, Jer 3:1, and thou shalt not cause the land to sin which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance; since if this was allowed, that men might put away their wives, and take them again at pleasure, and change them as often as they thought fit, no order could be observed, and the utmost confusion in families introduced, and lewdness encouraged, and which would subject the land and the inhabitants of it to many evils and calamities, as the just punishment thereof. (a) Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Sotah, c. 2. sect. 6.

OF DIVORCES. (Deu. 24:1-22) When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes--It appears that the practice of divorces was at this early period very prevalent amongst the Israelites, who had in all probability become familiar with it in Egypt [LANE]. The usage, being too deep-rooted to be soon or easily abolished, was tolerated by Moses (Mat 19:8). But it was accompanied under the law with two conditions, which were calculated greatly to prevent the evils incident to the permitted system; namely: (1) The act of divorcement was to be certified on a written document, the preparation of which, with legal formality, would afford time for reflection and repentance; and (2) In the event of the divorced wife being married to another husband, she could not, on the termination of that second marriage, be restored to her first husband, however desirous he might be to receive her.