Deuteronomy 24
The full text of Deuteronomy 24 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,
2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man,
3 and the second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies,
4 then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
5 If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.
6 Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person's livelihood as security.
7 If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.
8 In cases of defiling skin diseases, be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them.
9 Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.
10 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge.
11 Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you.
12 If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession.
13 Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the LORD your God.
14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.
15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
16 Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.
17 Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.
18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.
19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.
Translation notes (11)
- Deuteronomy 24:1a The phrase 'something indecent' translates the Hebrew 'erwat davar, meaning 'the nakedness/shame of a thing.' This famously ambiguous phrase was debated in antiquity (the school of Shammai read it narrowly of sexual immorality, Hillel broadly of any displeasure) and underlies the Gospel divorce debates (Matthew 5:31-32; 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12). Verses 1-4 present a continuous law that regulates a specific case (forbidding remarriage to the first husband, verse 4) rather than commanding or instituting divorce; its meaning, ethics, and relationship to Jesus' teaching are complex and are subjects of ongoing discussion.
- Deuteronomy 24:4a This verse states the actual ruling of the law (the conclusion of verses 1-4): the first husband may not remarry the woman after she has had an intervening marriage. The phrase 'after she has been defiled' (huttamma'ah) is difficult; it does not call remarriage in general impure but specifically bars this return, and the reasoning is debated. The law's interpretation and its place in the Gospel divorce debates (Matthew 19; Mark 10) are complex and are subjects of ongoing discussion (see note at verse 1).
- Deuteronomy 24:5a The phrase 'bring happiness to' (vesimmach 'et 'ishto) means he is to gladden his wife. The new marriage is given a protected first year, exempt from military service and public obligation.
- Deuteronomy 24:6a The hand mill ground the household's daily flour; to seize it (or even just the upper stone, making the mill useless) is to seize life itself (nefesh), meaning the pledge must never deprive a family of survival.
- Deuteronomy 24:7a Kidnapping a person to enslave or sell them is a capital crime, literally 'stealing a soul' (gonev nefesh). The death penalty is stated plainly; its ethics and theology are complex and are subjects of ongoing discussion.
- Deuteronomy 24:8a The phrase 'defiling skin diseases' translates the Hebrew nega' hatsara'at, referring to the ritual skin condition (often rendered 'leprosy') whose diagnosis and handling are entrusted to the priests (Leviticus 13-14).
- Deuteronomy 24:10a The creditor may not invade the debtor's home to seize the pledge himself; the debtor's dignity is protected because he brings the pledge out (verse 11). This is an early limit on a creditor's reach.
- Deuteronomy 24:13a The poor man's outer garment doubled as his only blanket, so it must be returned each night. Doing so is counted as tsedaqah, a righteous act, before the LORD (compare Exodus 22:26-27).
- Deuteronomy 24:15a The phrase 'they are counting on it' translates the Hebrew 'elav hu' nose' 'et nafsho, meaning 'he sets his very life on it.' This refers to the day laborer who needs the day's wage to survive that night; withholding it is a sin the LORD himself hears (compare James 5:4).
- Deuteronomy 24:16a This establishes individual judicial responsibility, meaning there is no punishment for someone else's crime within the court. This principle is invoked at 2 Kings 14:6 and developed by the prophets (Jeremiah 31:30; Ezekiel 18:20); it concerns human courts, not every biblical statement about generational consequences.
- Deuteronomy 24:19a The forgotten sheaf left deliberately for the poor is part of the gleaning law that frames the book of Ruth (Ruth 2); generosity to the vulnerable is tied to the LORD's blessing on the harvest.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own translation of Scripture, made directly from the original Hebrew rather than revised from an older English Bible. Completed in 2026, it is the most modern English Bible translation available, and it is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Reading the TBV here on the web is free — the full study edition, with original-language tools and notes on every verse, lives in the Trinity Bible app.
Continue: Deuteronomy 25 → · All of Deuteronomy · About the TBV · Read Deuteronomy 24 in the KJV
Get the app: iOS · Android · Trinity Plus