8 `Take heed, in the plague of leprosy, to watch greatly, and to do according to all that the priests, the Levites, teach you; as I have commanded them ye observe to do;
`This is a law of the leper, in the day of his cleansing, that he hath been brought in unto the priest,
And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying, `When a man hath in the skin of his flesh a rising, or scab, or bright spot, and it hath become in the skin of his flesh a leprous plague, then he hath been brought in unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests; and the priest hath seen the plague in the skin of the flesh, and the hair in the plague hath turned white, and the appearance of the plague `is' deeper than the skin of his flesh -- it `is' a plague of leprosy, and the priest hath seen him, and hath pronounced him unclean. `And if the bright spot is white in the skin of his flesh, and its appearance is not deeper than the skin, and its hair hath not turned white, then hath the priest shut up `him who hath' the plague seven days. `And the priest hath seen him on the seventh day, and lo, the plague hath stood in his eyes, the plague hath not spread in the skin, and the priest hath shut him up a second seven days. `And the priest hath seen him on the second seventh day, and lo, the plague is become weak, and the plague hath not spread in the skin -- and the priest hath pronounced him clean, it `is' a scab, and he hath washed his garments, and hath been clean. `And if the scab spread greatly in the skin, after his being seen by the priest for his cleansing, then he hath been seen a second time by the priest; and the priest hath seen, and lo, the scab hath spread in the skin, and the priest hath pronounced him unclean; it `is' leprosy. `When a plague of leprosy is in a man, then he hath been brought in unto the priest, and the priest hath seen, and lo, a white rising in the skin, and it hath turned the hair white, and a quickening of raw flesh `is' in the rising, -- an old leprosy it `is' in the skin of his flesh, and the priest hath pronounced him unclean; he doth not shut him up, for he `is' unclean. `And if the leprosy break out greatly in the skin, and the leprosy hath covered all the skin of `him who hath' the plague, from his head even unto his feet, to all that appeareth to the eyes of the priest, then hath the priest seen, and lo, the leprosy hath covered all his flesh, and he hath pronounced `him who hath' the plague clean; it hath all turned white; he `is' clean. `And in the day of raw flesh being seen in him he is unclean; and the priest hath seen the raw flesh, and hath pronounced him unclean; the raw flesh is unclean, it `is' leprosy. Or when the raw flesh turneth back, and hath been turned to white, then he hath come in unto the priest, and the priest hath seen him, and lo, the plague hath been turned to white, and the priest hath pronounced clean `him who hath' the plague; he `is' clean. `And when flesh hath in it, in its skin, an ulcer, and it hath been healed, and there hath been in the place of the ulcer a white rising, or a bright white spot, very red, then it hath been seen by the priest, and the priest hath seen, and lo, its appearance `is' lower than the skin, and its hair hath turned white, and the priest hath pronounced him unclean; it `is' a plague of leprosy -- in an ulcer it hath broken out. `And if the priest see it, and lo, there is no white hair in it, and it is not lower than the skin, and is become weak, then hath the priest shut him up seven days; and if it spread greatly in the skin, then hath the priest pronounced him unclean, it `is' a plague; and if in its place the bright spot stay -- it hath not spread -- it `is' an inflammation of the ulcer; and the priest hath pronounced him clean. `Or when flesh hath in its skin a fiery burning, and the quickening of the burning, the bright white spot, hath been very red or white, and the priest hath seen it, and lo, the hair hath turned white in the bright spot, and its appearance `is' deeper than the skin; leprosy it `is', in the burning it hath broken out, and the priest hath pronounced him unclean; it `is' a plague of leprosy. `And if the priest see it, and lo, there is no white hair on the bright spot, and it is not lower than the skin, and it is become weak, then the priest hath shut him up seven days; and the priest hath seen him on the seventh day, if it spread greatly in the skin, then the priest hath pronounced him unclean; a plague of leprosy it `is'. `And if the bright spot stay in its place, it hath not spread in the skin, and is become weak; a rising of the burning it `is', and the priest hath pronounced him clean; for it `is' inflammation of the burning. `And when a man (or a woman) hath in him a plague in the head or in the beard, then hath the priest seen the plague, and lo, its appearance is deeper than the skin, and in it a thin shining hair, and the priest hath pronounced him unclean; it `is' a scall -- it `is' a leprosy of the head or of the beard. `And when the priest seeth the plague of the scall, and lo, its appearance is not deeper than the skin, and there is no black hair in it, then hath the priest shut up `him who hath' the plague of the scall seven days. `And the priest hath seen the plague on the seventh day, and lo, the scall hath not spread, and a shining hair hath not been in it, and the appearance of the scall is not deeper than the skin, then he hath shaved himself, but the scall he doth not shave; and the priest hath shut up `him who hath' the scall a second seven days. And the priest hath seen the scall on the seventh day, and lo, the scall hath not spread in the skin, and its appearance is not deeper than the skin, and the priest hath pronounced him clean, and he hath washed his garments, and hath been clean. `And if the scall spread greatly in the skin after his cleansing, and the priest hath seen him, and lo, the scall hath spread in the skin, the priest seeketh not for the shining hair, he is unclean; and if in his eyes the scall hath stayed, and black hair hath sprung up in it, the scall hath been healed -- he `is' clean -- and the priest hath pronounced him clean. `And when a man or woman hath in the skin of their flesh bright spots, white bright spots, and the priest hath seen, and lo, in the skin of their flesh white weak bright spots, it `is' a freckled spot broken out in the skin; he `is' clean. `And when a man's head `is' polished, he `is' bald, he `is' clean; and if from the corner of his face his head is polished, he `is' bald of the forehead; he `is' clean. `And when there is in the bald back of the head, or in the bald forehead, a very red white plague, it `is' a leprosy breaking out in the bald back of the head, or in the bald forehead; and the priest hath seen him, and lo, the rising of the very red white plague in the bald back of the head, or in the bald forehead, `is' as the appearance of leprosy, in the skin of the flesh, he `is' a leprous man, he `is' unclean; the priest doth pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague `is' in his head. `As to the leper in whom `is' the plague, his garments are rent, and his head is uncovered, and he covereth over the upper lip, and `Unclean! unclean!' he calleth; all the days that the plague `is' in him he is unclean; he `is' unclean, alone he doth dwell, at the outside of the camp `is' his dwelling.
`And it hath been, on the seventh day -- he shaveth all his hair, his head, and his beard, and his eyebrows, even all his hair he doth shave, and he hath washed his garments, and hath bathed his flesh with water, and hath been clean. `And on the eighth day he taketh two lambs, perfect ones, and one ewe-lamb, daughter of a year, a perfect one, and three tenth deals of flour `for' a present, mixed with oil, and one log of oil.
And Jesus saith to him, `See, thou mayest tell no one, but go, thyself shew to the priest, and bring the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony to them.'
And he charged him to tell no one, `But, having gone away, shew thyself to the priest, and bring near for thy cleansing according as Moses directed, for a testimony to them;'
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 24
Commentary on Deuteronomy 24 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Deuteronomy 24:1-5 contain two laws concerning the relation of a man to his wife. The first (Deuteronomy 24:1-4) has reference to divorce. In these verses, however, divorce is not established as a right; all that is done is, that in case of a divorce a reunion with the divorced wife is forbidden, if in the meantime she had married another man, even though the second husband had also put her away, or had died. The four verses form a period, in which Deuteronomy 24:1-3 are the clauses of the protasis, which describe the matter treated about; and Deuteronomy 24:4 contains the apodosis, with the law concerning the point in question. If a man married a wife, and he put her away with a letter of divorce, because she did not please him any longer, and the divorced woman married another man, and he either put her away in the same manner or died, the first husband could not take her as his wife again. The putting away (divorce) of a wife with a letter of divorce, which the husband gave to the wife whom he put away, is assumed as a custom founded upon tradition. This tradition left the question of divorce entirely at the will of the husband: “ if the wife does not find favour in his eyes (i.e., does not please him), because he has found in her something shameful ” (Deuteronomy 23:15). ערוה , nakedness, shame, disgrace (Isaiah 20:4; 1 Samuel 20:30); in connection with דּבר , the shame of a thing, i.e., a shameful thing (lxx ἄσχημον πρᾶγμα ; Vulg . aliquam faetiditatem ). The meaning of this expression as a ground of divorce was disputed even among the Rabbins. Hillel's school interpret it in the widest and most lax manner possible, according to the explanation of the Pharisees in Matthew 19:3, “for every cause.” They no doubt followed the rendering of Onkelos , פתגם עבירת , the transgression of a thing; but this is contrary to the use of the word ערוה , to which the interpretation given by Shammai adhered more strictly. His explanation of דּבר ערות is “ rem impudicam, libidinem, lasciviam, impudicitiam .” Adultery, to which some of the Rabbins would restrict the expression, is certainly not to be thought of, because this was to be punished with death.
(Note: For the different views of the Rabbins upon this subject, see Mishnah tract. Gittin ix. 10; Buxtorf, de sponsal. et divort. pp. 88ff.; Selden, uxor ebr. l. iii. c. 18 and 20; and Lightfoot, horae ebr. et talm. ad Matth. v. 31f.)
כּריתת ספר , βιβλίον ἀποστασίου , a letter of divorce; כּריתת , hewing off, cutting off, sc., from the man, with whom the wife was to be one flesh (Genesis 2:24). The custom of giving letters of divorce was probably adopted by the Israelites in Egypt, where the practice of writing had already found its way into all the relations of life.
(Note: The rabbinical rules on the grounds of divorce and the letter of divorce, according to Maimonides , have been collected by Surenhusius, ad Mishn. tr. Gittin, c. 1 (T. iii. pp. 322f. of the Mishnah of Sur. ), where different specimens of letters of divorce are given; the latter also in Lightfoot, l.c. )
The law that the first husband could not take his divorced wife back again, if she had married another husband in the meantime, even supposing that the second husband was dead, would necessarily put a check upon frivolous divorces. Moses could not entirely abolish the traditional custom, if only “because of the hardness of the people's hearts” ( Matthew 19:8). The thought, therefore, of the impossibility of reunion with the first husband, after the wife had contracted a second marriage, would put some restraint upon a frivolous rupture of the marriage tie: it would have this effect, that whilst, on the one hand, the man would reflect when inducements to divorce his wife presented themselves, and would recall a rash act if it had been performed, before the wife he had put away had married another husband; on the other hand, the wife would yield more readily to the will of her husband, and seek to avoid furnishing him with an inducement for divorce. But this effect would be still more readily produced by the reason assigned by Moses, namely, that the divorced woman was defiled ( הטּמּאה , Hothpael , as in Numbers 1:47) by her marriage with a second husband. The second marriage of a woman who had been divorced is designated by Moses a defilement of the woman, primarily no doubt with reference to the fact that the emissio seminis in sexual intercourse rendered unclean, though not merely in the sense of such a defilement as was removed in the evening by simple washing, but as a moral defilement, i.e., blemishing, desecration of the sexual communion with was sanctified by marriage, in the same sense in which adultery is called a defilement in Leviticus 18:20 and Numbers 5:13-14. Thus the second marriage of a divorced woman was placed implicite upon a par with adultery, and some approach made towards the teaching of Christ concerning marriage: “Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery” (Matthew 5:32). - But if the second marriage of a divorced woman was a moral defilement, of course the wife could not marry the first again even after the death of her second husband, not only because such a reunion would lower the dignity of the woman, and the woman would appear too much like property, which could be disposed of at one time and reclaimed at another ( Schultz ), but because the defilement of the wife would be thereby repeated, and even increased, as the moral defilement which the divorced wife acquired through the second marriage was not removed by a divorce from the second husband, nor yet by his death. Such defilement was an abomination before Jehovah, by which they would cause the land to sin, i.e., stain it with sin, as much as by the sins of incest and unnatural licentiousness (Leviticus 18:25).
Attached to this law, which is intended to prevent a frivolous severance of the marriage tie, there is another in Deuteronomy 24:5, which was of a more positive character, and adapted to fortify the marriage bond. The newly married man was not required to perform military service for a whole year; “ and there shall not come (anything) upon him with regard to any matter .” The meaning of this last clause is to be found in what follows: “ Free shall he be for his house for a year ,” i.e., they shall put no public burdens upon him, that he may devote himself entirely to his newly established domestic relations, and be able to gladden his wife (compare Deuteronomy 20:7).
Various Prohibitions . - Deuteronomy 24:6. “ No man shall take in pledge the handmill and millstone, for he (who does this) is pawning life .” רחים , the handmill; רכב , lit., the runner, i.e., the upper millstone. Neither the whole mill nor the upper millstone was to be asked for as a pledge, by which the mill would be rendered useless, since the handmill was indispensable for preparing the daily food for the house; so that whoever took them away injured life itself, by withdrawing what was indispensable to the preservation of life. The mill is mentioned as one specimen of articles of this kind, like the clothing in Exodus 22:25-26, which served the poor man as bed-clothes also. Breaches of this commandment are reproved in Amos 2:8; Job 22:6; Proverbs 20:16; Proverbs 22:27; Proverbs 27:13.
Deuteronomy 24:7-9
Repetition of the law against man-stealing (Exodus 21:16). - Deuteronomy 24:8, Deuteronomy 24:9. The command, “ Take heed by the plague of leprosy to observe diligently and to do according to all that the priests teach thee ,” etc., does not mean, that when they saw signs of leprosy they were to be upon their guard, to observe everything that the priests directed them, as Knobel and many others suppose. For, in the first place, the reference to the punishment of Miriam with leprosy is by no means appropriate to such a thought as this, since Miriam did not act in opposition to the priests after she had been smitten with leprosy, but brought leprosy upon herself as a punishment, by her rebellion against Moses (Numbers 12:10.). And in the second place, this view cannot be reconciled with בּנגע השּׁמר , since השּׁמר with בּ , either to be upon one's guard against (before) anything (2 Samuel 20:10), or when taken in connection with בּנפשׁ , to beware by the soul, i.e., for the sake of the worth of the soul ( Jeremiah 17:21). The thought here, therefore, is, “Be on thy guard because of the plague of leprosy,” i.e., that thou dost not get it, have to bear it, as the reward for thy rebellion against what the priests teach according to the commandment of the Lord. “Watch diligently, that thou do not incur the plague of leprosy” ( Vulgate ); or, “that thou do not sin, so as to be punished with leprosy” ( J. H. Michaelis ).
Warning against oppressing the Poor . - Deuteronomy 24:10, Deuteronomy 24:11. If a loan of any kind was lent to a neighbour, the lender was not to go into his house to pledge (take) a pledge, but was to let the borrower bring the pledge out. The meaning is, that they were to leave it to the borrower to give a pledge, and not compel him to give up something as a pledge that might be indispensable to him.
And if the man was in distress ( עני ), the lender was not to lie (sleep) upon his pledge, since the poor man had very often nothing but his upper garment, in which he slept, to give as a pledge. This was to be returned to him in the evening. (A repetition of Exodus 22:25-26.) On the expression, “It shall be righteousness unto thee,” see Deuteronomy 6:25.
They were not to oppress a poor and distressed labourer, by withholding his wages. This command is repeated here from Leviticus 19:13, with special reference to the distress of the poor man. “ And to it (his wages) he lifts up his soul: ” i.e., he feels a longing for it. “Lifts up his soul:” as in Psalms 24:4; Hosea 4:8; Jeremiah 22:27. On Deuteronomy 24:15 , see Deuteronomy 15:9 and James 5:4.
Warning against Injustice . - Deuteronomy 24:16. Fathers were not to be put to death upon (along with) their sons, nor sons upon (along with) their fathers, i.e., they were not to suffer the punishment of death with them for crimes in which they had no share; but every one was to be punished simply for his own sin. This command was important, to prevent an unwarrantable and abusive application of the law which is manifest in the movements of divine justice to the criminal jurisprudence of the lane (Exodus 20:5), since it was a common thing among the heathen nations - e.g., the Persians, Macedonians, and others - for the children and families of criminals to be also put to death (cf. Esther 9:13-14; Herod . iii. 19; Ammian Marcell . xxiii. 6; Curtius , vi. 11, 20, etc.). An example of the carrying out of this law is to be found in 2 Kings 14:6; 2 Chronicles 25:4. In Deuteronomy 24:17, Deuteronomy 24:18, the law against perverting the right of strangers, orphans, and widows, is repeated from Exodus 22:20-21, and Exodus 23:9; and an addition is made, namely, that they were not to take a widow's raiment in pledge (cf. Leviticus 19:33-34).
Directions to allow strangers, widows, and orphans to glean in time of harvest (as in Leviticus 19:9-10, and Leviticus 23:22). The reason is given in Deuteronomy 24:22, viz., the same as in Deuteronomy 24:18 and Deuteronomy 15:15.