Marriage and Divorce Laws
(Matthew 5:31–32; Luke 16:18)

1When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it comes to pass that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found in her some uncleanness, and he writes to her a certificate of divorce† and puts it into her hand and sends her out of his house,

2and she has departed from his house and goes and becomes to another man, 3and the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, 4then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be wife to him after that she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the face of YHWH, and you shall not bring sin upon the land that YHWH your God is giving to you as an inheritance.

5When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with anything. He shall be free at home one year, and bring joy to his wife whom he has taken.

Additional Laws

6No one shall take in pledge the lower or the upper millstone, for it is a life for a pledge.

7If a man is found kidnapping any of his brothers of the sons of Israel, and he mistreats him or sells him, that thief shall die. And you shall put away the evil from among you.†

8Take heed in an outbreak of leprosy† that you observe carefully and do according to all that the priests, the Levites, shall teach you⁺. As I commanded them, you⁺ shall be careful to do. 9Remember what YHWH your God did to Miriam on the way, when you⁺ came out of Egypt.

10When you lend your brother a loan of anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. 11You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend it shall bring out to you the pledge outside. 12And if the man is poor, you shall not lie asleep with his pledge. 13You shall surely return the pledge to him when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you, and to you it shall be righteousness before the face of YHWH your God.

14You shall not oppress a hireling who is poor and needy, one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who is in your land within your gates. 15Each day you shall give him his wage, and let the sun not go down on it—for he is poor, and on it he lifts up his heart—lest he cry out against you to YHWH, and it be sin in you.

16Fathers shall not be put to death for sons, and neither shall sons be put to death for fathers. A man shall be put to death for his own sin.†

17You shall not pervert justice due the sojourner or the fatherless, nor take as a pledge the garment of a widow. 18And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and YHWH your God redeemed you from there. Upon thus I command you to do this thing.

19When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. To the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow it shall be, that YHWH your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

20When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again. To the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow it shall be.

21When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean after yourself; to the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow it shall be. 22And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Upon thus I command you to do this thing.

Footnotes:

1 Cited in Matthew 5:31; see also Mark 10:4.
7 Cited in 1 Corinthians 5:13
8 Forms of the Hebrew tzaraath, traditionally translated as leprosy, were used for various skin diseases; see Leviticus 13.
16 Cited in 2 Kings 14:6 and 2 Chronicles 25:4