Deuteronomy 24:7

_IF 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._ If a man be found stealing any of his brethren - (see the note at Exodus 21:16.) A land so completely a thoroughfare for mercantile caravans as Canaan was must have presented special opportunities to kidnapping for a slave trade. The person who thus laid hold of a brother Israelite, and sold him into slavery among a foreign and pagan people-as was the case of Joseph into Egypt-was a criminal that merited both condemnation and death....

The same punishment is here deservedly denounced against man-stealers as against murderers; for, so wretched was the condition of slaves, that liberty was more than half of life; and hence to deprive a man of such a great blessing, was almost to destroy him. Besides, it is not man-stealing only which is here condemned, but the accompanying evils of cruelty and fraud, _i_. _e_. , if he, who had stolen a man, had likewise sold him. Now, such a sale could hardly be made among the people themselves, without the crime being immediately detected; and nothing could be more hateful than that God’s children should be alienated from the Church, and delivered over to heathen nations....

5-13 It is of great consequence that love be kept up between husband and wife; that they carefully avoid every thing which might make them strange one to another. Man-stealing was a capital crime, which could not be settled, as other thefts, by restitution. The laws concerning leprosy must be carefully observed. Thus all who feel their consciences under guilt and wrath, must not cover it, or endeavour to shake off their convictions; but by repentance, and prayer, and humble confession, take the way to peace and pardon. Some orders are given about pledges for money lent. This teaches us to consult the comfort and subsistence of others, as much as our own advantage. Let the poor debtor sleep in his own raiment, and praise God for thy kindness to him. Poor debtors ought to feel more than commonly they do, the goodness of creditors who do not take all the advantage of the law against them, n...

Compare Deuteronomy 21:14; and Exodus 21:16....

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....

IF A MAN BE FOUND STEALING ANY OF HIS BRETHREN OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,.... Whether grown up or little, male or female, an Israelite or a proselyte, or a freed servant; all, as Maimonides f says, are included in this general word "brethren"; though Aben Ezra observes, that it is added, "of the children of Israel", for explanation, since an Edomite is called a "brother". Now, a man must be "found" committing this fact; that is, it must plainly appear, there must be full proof of it by witnesses, as Jarchi explains this word: AND MAKETH MERCHANDISE OF HIM; or rather uses him as a servant, and employs him in any service to the least profit and advantage by him, even to the value of a farthing; yea, if he does but lean upon him, and he supports him, though he is an old man that is stolen; this is serving a man's self by him, as Maimonides g, which is what is forbidden as distinct from sel...

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

XXIV. 6_ F_., 10- 13, which stood perhaps originally together, belong to the many humanitarian laws of D (Deuteronomy 15:12 *). Corn is still ground in the home in Palestine; this is done by the rotation of an upper on a lower round stone (_cf._ the British quern used in Scotland in 1880 according to E. B. Tylor (_Academy_, vol. xviii. (1880) p. 204). Deuteronomy 24:7. Exodus 21:16 (JE). Here the law is narrower. In CH (§ 14) it is only the nobleman who may not be stolen (Deuteronomy 15:12 *)....

ANY. a soul. Hebrew. _neph_ es _h_. App-13. Compare Exodus 21:16. HIM.. special various reading called _Sev_ ir (App-34), reads "her", fem, to agree with _nephesh;_ or else. female in contrast with the "him" in next sentence. PUT EVIL AWAY. See note on Deuteronomy 13:5....

Deuteronomy 24:5 to Deuteronomy 25:4. Thirteen Laws of Equity and Humanity Besides the humane temper common to most of them, and a few cue-words, there are no apparent reasons for their being grouped or for the order in which they occur. They have various openings, mostly conditional, otherwise negative. Three are not in the direct form of address, and two only close with this; the rest are in the Sg. form, except one mixed of Sg. and Pl. Some are peculiar to D, others have parallels in E and H. In particular note the separation of the three laws on pledges, and their use of two different terms for -pledge." All this suggests a compilation from different sources....