Deuteronomy 24:19

_WHEN 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._ When thou cuttest down thine harvest. The grain pulled up by the roots or cut down with a sickle was laid in loose sheaves; the fruit of the olive was obtained by striking the branches with long poles or shaking the tree (Isaiah 17:6; Isaiah 24:13); and the grape clusters, severed by a hook, were gathered in the hands of the vintager. Here is a beneficent provision for the poor, who were to participate in the general joy at the crowning of the year with the divine goodness. Every forgotten sheaf in the harvest field was to lie; th

God here inculcates liberality upon the possessors of land, when their fruits are gathered: for, when His bounty is exercised before our eyes, it invites us to imitate Him; and it is a sign of ingratitude, unkindly and maliciously, to withhold what we derive from His blessing. God does not indeed require that those who have abundance should so profusely give away their produce, as to despoil themselves by enriching others; and, in fact, Paul prescribes this as the measure of our alms, that their relief of the poor should not bring into distress the rich themselves, who kindly distribute. (2 Corinthians 8:13.) God, therefore, permits every one to reap his corn, to gather his vintage, and to enjoy his abundance; provided the rich, content with their own vintage and harvest, do not grudge the poor the gleaning of the grapes and corn. Not that He absolutely assigns to the poor whatever remai...

14-22 It is not hard to prove that purity, piety, justice, mercy, fair conduct, kindness to the poor and destitute, consideration for them, and generosity of spirit, are pleasing to God, and becoming in his redeemed people. The difficulty is to attend to them in our daily walk and conversation....

Verse Deuteronomy 24:19. _WHEN THOU CUTTEST DOWN THINE HARVEST_] This is an addition to the law, Leviticus 19:9; Leviticus 23:22. The _corners_ of the field, the _gleanings_, and the _forgotten sheaf_, were all the property of the poor. This the Hebrews extended to any part of the fruit or produce of a field, which had been forgotten in the time of general ingathering, as appears from the concluding verses of this chapter....

Compare the marginal references. The motive assigned for these various acts of consideration is one and the same Deuteronomy 24:18, Deuteronomy 24:22....

EXPOSITION LAWS RESPECTING DIVORCE, AGAINST MAN-STEALING AND INJUSTICE. DEUTERONOMY 24:1 _Of divorce_._ _If a man put away his wife because she did not any longer please him, and she became the wife of another man, by whom also she was put away, or from whom she was severed by his death, the first husband might not remarry her, for that would be an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, and would bring sin on the land. This is not a law sanctioning or regulating divorce; that is simply assumed as what might occur, and what is here regulated is the treatment by the first husband of a woman who has been divorced a second time....

WHEN THOU CUTTEST DOWN THINE HARVEST IN THY FIELD,.... Whether barley harvest or wheat harvest, when either of them are ripe for cutting, mowing, or reaping, and are cutting down: AND HAST FORGOT A SHEAF IN THE FIELD; Jarchi says the phrase "in the field" is to include standing corn, some of which is forgotten in cutting down, and so is subject to this law as well as a sheaf; and a sheaf claimed by this name is one that is forgotten both by the workman and the owner; if by the one and not by the other, it could not be so called. The canon runs thus t, "a sheaf which the workmen forget, and not the owner, or the owner forgets, and not the workman, before which the poor stand, or is covered with straw or stubble, is not a forgotten sheaf.'' And about this they have various other rules; "a sheaf that is near the gate (of a field), or to an heap (of sheaves), or to oxen, or to instrument...

20. CONCERNING DIVORCE AND LAWS OF MERCY CHAPTER 24 _ 1. Concerning divorce (Deuteronomy 24:1)_ 2. Concerning pledge and slavery (Deuteronomy 24:6) 3. Concerning leprosy (Deuteronomy 24:8) 4. Concerning the oppression of the poor (Deuteronomy 24:10) 5. Concerning injustice (Deuteronomy 24:16) 6. The stranger, the fatherless and the widow remembered (Deuteronomy 24

Laws in the interest of the sojourner (see Deuteronomy 1:16 *), the orphan (EV, fatherless because the motherless orphan would be seen to by the father), and the widow (Deuteronomy 10:18 *), classes for which D shows great concern (Deuteronomy 15:12 *), the Levite (Deuteronomy 18:1 *) being often added (Deuteronomy 26:12, etc.). Deuteronomy 24:17_ f_....

HARVEST, put for "corn" by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct). See App-6. STRANGER... FATHERLESS... WIDOW. Not the tramp, or ne'erdo- well, or the drunkard. And in kind, not money...