Go to Related Reading
About this book

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 Deuteronomy 24:21 and Jeremiah 49:9

Hebrew Bible

Share:

Summary

Jeremiah takes the harvest commandments from Deuteronomy, which told farmers to leave leftover crops for the poor, and turns them into an image of destruction. Instead of generosity, his version describes a judgment where nothing at all is left behind.

Passages

Deuteronomy 24:21

Hebrew Bible
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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Jeremiah 49:9

Hebrew Bible
7 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies spoke about Edom: “Is wisdom no longer to be found in Teman? Can Edom’s counselors not give her any good advice? Has all their wisdom turned bad? 8 Turn and flee! Take up refuge in remote places, you people who live in Dedan. For I will bring disaster on the descendants of Esau. I have decided it is time for me to punish them. 9 If grape pickers came to pick your grapes, would they not leave a few grapes behind? If robbers came at night, would they not pillage only what they needed? 10 But I will strip everything away from Esau’s descendants. I will uncover their hiding places so they cannot hide. Their children, relatives, and neighbors will all be destroyed. Not one of them will be left! 11 Leave your orphans behind, and I will keep them alive. Your widows, too, can depend on me.”
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jeremiah

References

"... There are a few usages that suggest the Holiness Code: in Jeremiah 2:7 we read, "my heritage you made loathsome"; one recalls the repetition in Leviticus 18:22-30. Again Jeremiah 6:9 contradicts the law on gleaning in Leviticus 19:9-10, but it is more likely to reflect the form of the law in Deuteronomy 24:21. Jeremiah 9:3 may well have the sequence of laws in Leviticus 19:16-18 in mind: the verse in Jeremiah associates 'neighbor,' 'brother,' and 'slanderer,' offering a picture of the breakdown of covenant solidarity; Leviticus 19:16 forbids going around as a slanderer and mentions 'neighbor,' and verses 17-18 state that one should not hate one's brother and should love one's neighbor as oneself. Finally, 'your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me' (Jeremiah 6:20) suggests an antecedent Leviticus 22:20, 'You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you.' My conclusion is that it is possible, though not proven, that phrases of Jeremiah's reflect the Holiness Code. In addition, there are phrases at the end of Leviticus 26 that imply the experience of the fall of Jerusalem in 587 and the consequent exile and some of these phrases appear to be borrowed from Jeremiah: the striking image of the corpses of idols (Leviticus 26:30) is doubtless drawn from Jeremiah 16:18, and the image of the uncircumcised heart (Leviticus 26:41) may be dependent on that in Jeremiah 4:4 ..."
William Lee Holladay, Jeremiah 2: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapters 26-52 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989), 76.

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

Your feedback

Deuteronomy 24:21 and Jeremiah 49:9

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library