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Deuteronomy 24 Bible study: Before the sun goes down
The lender stood outside while a poor borrower brought his pledge out (24:11), the poor man's cloak went back at sundown "that he may sleep in his garment and bless you" (24:13), and a poor worker, Israelite or foreigner, was paid before the sun went down (24:14-15). A forgotten sheaf stayed in the field because Israel had been slaves in Egypt (24:19, 24:22).
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“but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you there. Therefore I command you to do this thing.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“In Deuteronomy 24, a newly married man was to be free at home for one year and not go out with the army.”
Is that in Deuteronomy 24, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Where the first four verses land
The first verses set out a case. A man marries, and "if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some unseemly thing in her", he is to write "her a certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send her out of his house" (24:1). Then "she may go and be another man’s wife" (24:2). If the latter husband also writes her a certificate and sends her away, "or if the latter husband dies" (24:3), the ruling comes: "her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife after she is defiled; for that would be an abomination to the LORD" (24:4). The chapter doesn't say what the "unseemly thing" was, and it gives no reason beyond the one in 24:4. Pharisees asked Jesus about this law, and his answer is this chapter's thread to Jesus (Matthew 19:3-8).
Where it leads to Jesus
"Because of the hardness of your hearts"
Deuteronomy 24:1leads toMatthew 19:7-8
Pharisees came to Jesus, "testing him and saying, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?'" (Matthew 19:3), and he answered with the words of Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 (Matthew 19:4-6). They asked him, "Why then did Moses command us to give her a certificate of divorce and divorce her?" (Matthew 19:7). He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so" (Matthew 19:8). In Mark, Jesus first asks, "What did Moses command you?" (Mark 10:3); they say, "Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her" (Mark 10:4); and Jesus says, "For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment" (Mark 10:5). His words go on in Matthew 19:9 and Mark 10:10-12, and Matthew 5:31-32 is another place where he speaks of divorce.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Deuteronomy 24
That was a taste
The rest of Deuteronomy 24 is waiting in Favor
- Stand outside
- Paid before the sun goes down
- Because you were slaves
- "Yet return again to me"
- The verse a king kept
- 10 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Deuteronomy 24 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
נֶפֶשׁnefeshsay NEH-fesh
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "soul, living being, life, self, person". Strong's: "properly, a breathing creature". It comes three times in this chapter, and the WEB gives it three ways. To take a mill in pledge is to take a nefesh: "for he takes a life in pledge" (24:6). In 24:7 the nefesh is the person stolen: "If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel". And in 24:15 the poor hired servant "sets his heart on it", where "heart" is nefesh. It is the word of "the blood is the life" (12:23).
For your group
Deuteronomy 24 Bible study questions
- 1The poor man's pledge went back at sundown, "that he may sleep in his garment and bless you" (24:13), and the poor worker was paid the same day (24:15). Who depends on you for something they need today, not tomorrow?
- 2The lender had to "stand outside" (24:11) while the borrower brought the pledge out to him. When you help someone who owes you or needs you, how can you leave them in charge of what is theirs?
- 3"You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt" (24:22). What has God brought you out of, and how could remembering it change the way you treat someone who has less than you?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Deuteronomy 24 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home