Deuteronomy 24

¹When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

We have already seen what marriage can mean. So if a wife has any hesitance about her new life as a sexual slave, and her husband cannot be bothered to "train" her he can give her a note of "divorcement".

²And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.

And if she gets another chance at marriage with another man

³And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;

⁴Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

So she only gets the one second chance at marital bliss and even if her second hubby dies, she gets slung out and marked as unclean

⁵When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.

I would have thought she would have been happier with the idea her enamoured ,maniacal Moses minion was away at war with a good possibility of coming back dead.

⁶No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to pledge.

⁷If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you.

⁸Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so ye shall observe to do.

⁹Remember what the LORD thy God did unto Miriam by the way, after that ye were come forth out of Egypt.

¹⁰When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.

I thought they were banned from lending their brothers stuff.

¹¹Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee.

¹²And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge:

Is the pledge a wife, daughter or goat.

¹³In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the LORD thy God.

Have I got this right ?

A man owes you something, so you can demand it back but must return it to him at sundown. Why ?

¹⁴Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:

This seems to now mean you can shoot at unarmed civilians as long as they are outside of your gates.

¹⁵At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee.

Fair enough. You must pay for contracted work.

¹⁶The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

But if a child is fatherless they are cursed for 10 generations

¹⁷Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's raiment to pledge:

That must lose something in translation

¹⁸But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing.

Bond man suggests contracted worker not slaves as we have been repeatedly told.

¹⁹When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.

²⁰When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

²¹When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

I suppose these last three verses are an attempt at charity or an acceptance of a states duty to it's more vulnerable citizens.

²²And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing.