Deuteronomy 24: Wives, women, slavery and gleaning

Synopsis:

If you take a wife and don’t like her. Give her a divorce. She is then free to marry another man. If he doesn't like her, he should divorce her.  Her former husband can’t take her back, she is now defiled.  If a man takes a wife, he can’t go to war for a year. His job is to stay home and try to cheer up his bride who is probably missing her family.  Don’t steal your brethren and sell them into slavery. Keep clean, remember the leprosy that happened to Miriam. Don’t kill children for the sins of the father and don’t kill the father for sins of the child. And when you harvest your crops. Don’t go back and glean them. The gleaning is for the stranger, the fatherless and for the widow.

In other words:

A woman can only get remarried twice. Everyone is responsible for their own sins and the poor must be given the right to glean the fields.

Favorite bit:

That divorce was very easy. (Deuteronomy 24:1)

Least favorite bit:

That only men had the right to divorce. (Deuteronomy 24:1)

Best bit:

That the poor are specifically provided for with gleaning rights. (Deuteronomy 24: 20)

Moral Lessons Learned:

Don’t punish relatives for crimes they didn’t commit. (Deuteronomy 24:16)