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Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 24

1 If a man marries a woman and she does not please him because he has found something indecent in her, then he may draw up a divorce document, give it to her, and evict her from his house.⁠ 2 When she has left him she may go and become someone else’s wife. 3 If the second husband rejects her and then divorces her, gives her the papers, and evicts her from his house, or if the second husband who married her dies,⁠ 4 her first husband who divorced her is not permitted to remarry her after she has become ritually impure, for that is offensive to the Lord. You must not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 5 When a man is newly married, he need not go into the army nor be obligated in any way; he must be free to stay at home for a full year and bring joy to the wife he has married. 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. 7 If a man is found kidnapping a person from among his fellow Israelites, and regards him as mere property and sells him, that kidnapper must die. In this way you will purge the evil from among you. 8 Be careful during an outbreak of leprosy to follow precisely all that the Levitical priests instruct you; as I have commanded them, so you should do.⁠ 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you left Egypt. 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.⁠ 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. 12 If the person is poor you may not use what he gives you as security for a covering. 13 You must by all means 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 deed by the Lord your God. 14 You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. 15 You must pay his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.⁠ 16 Fathers must not be put to death for what their children do, nor children for what their fathers do; each must be put to death for his own sin.⁠ 17 You must not pervert justice due a resident foreigner or an orphan, or take a widow’s garment as security for a loan.⁠ 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do all this. 19 Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there, 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.⁠ 20 When you beat your olive tree you must not repeat the procedure; the remaining olives belong to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard you must not do so a second time; they should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow.⁠ 22 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt; therefore, I am commanding you to do all this.

Texts in conversation

Compare Code of Hammurabi §230 and Deuteronomy 24:16

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy 24 rejects the punishment of children for their parents' crimes found in the Code of Hammurabi, requiring courts to hold the offender responsible rather than make an innocent family member pay with their life.

Passages

Code of Hammurabi §230

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Babylonian Legal Text
229 If a builder builds a house for someone and does not build it properly, and the house he built collapses and kills its owner, the builder shall be put to death. 230 If it kills the owner's son, the builder's son shall be put to death. 231 If it kills the owner's slave, the builder shall give the owner a slave for the slave. 232 If it destroys property, he shall replace everything that was destroyed, and because he did not build the house properly and it collapsed, he shall rebuild the house at his own expense. 233 If a builder builds a house for someone and, even before it is finished, the walls look like they are about to fall, the builder must strengthen the walls at his own expense.
1750 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Code of Hammurabi

Deuteronomy 24:16

Hebrew Bible
16 Fathers must not be put to death for what their children do, nor children for what their fathers do; each must be put to death for his own sin. 17 You must not pervert justice due a resident foreigner or an orphan, or take a widow’s garment as security for a loan. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do all this. 19 Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there, 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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

References

“... A very strange aspect of some of the laws is vicarious punishment. In several cases, the offender does not pay the penalty but someone else who stands in relation to him. For example, in the Middle Assyrian Laws, the rape of an unbetrothed virgin who lives in her father’s house is punished by the ravishing of the rapist’s wife, who also remains thereafter with the father of the victim. Hammurabi decrees that if a man struck a pregnant woman, thereby causing her to miscarry and die, it is the assailant’s daughter who is put to death. If a builder erected a house which collapsed, killing the owner’s son, then the builder’s son, not the builder, is put to death. Judicial vicarious punishment is unthinkable in the Torah. In fact, it is explicitly outlawed in Deuteronomy 24:16: Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children be put to death for parents: a person shall be put to death only for his own crime. ...”
Nahum M. Sarna, Exploring Exodus: The Origins of Biblical Israel (New York: Schocken, 1996), PDF 120.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Code of Hammurabi §230 and Deuteronomy 24:16

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