Deuteronomy 24:8

_TAKE HEED IN THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY, THAT THOU OBSERVE DILIGENTLY, AND DO ACCORDING TO ALL THAT THE PRIESTS THE LEVITES SHALL TEACH YOU: AS I COMMANDED THEM, SO YE SHALL OBSERVE TO DO._ Take heed in the plague of leprosy (see the note at Leviticus 13:14) - avoid all occasion of contracting that dreadful disease, especially in the way of punishment for disobedience, like Miriam; but in the event of being overtaken by it, be implicitly subject to the counsels and instructions of the Levites, who were divinely directed what remedies to prescribe....

8._Take heed in the plague of leprosy_. I am aware how greatly interpreters differ from each other and how variously they twist whatever Moses has written about Leprosy. Some are too eagerly devoted to allegories; some think that God, as a prudent Legislator, merely gave a commandment of a sanitary, nature, in order that a contagious disease should not, spread among the people. This notion, however, is very. poor, and almost unmeaning; and is briefly. refuted by Moses himself, both where he recounts the history of Miriam’s leprosy, and also where he assigns the cause why lepers should be put out of the camp, viz that they might not defile the camp in which God dwelt, whilst he ranks them with those that have an issue, and that they are defiled by the dead. Wherefore, I have thought it well, previous to attempting the full elucidation of the matter, to adduce two passages, by way of prefa...

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...

Verse Deuteronomy 24:8-5. _THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY_] See on Leviticus 13:1...

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....

TAKE HEED, IN THE PLAGUE OF LEPROSY,.... Whether in the bodies of men, or in houses, or in garments, not to hide and conceal it; or, as Jarchi, weaken the signs of it, or cut out the bright spot; so the Targum of Jonathan: THAT THOU OBSERVE DILIGENTLY, AND DO ACCORDING TO ALL THE PRIESTS THE LEVITES SHALL TEACH YOU: according to the laws and rules given in such cases, whether they order to shut up persons, houses, or clothes, or pronounce unclean or clean; in all things they were to do as they directed, which appeared to be agreeably to the said rules; for the judgment, management, and ordering of these things, belonged to the priests: of which see Leviticus 13:1; AS I COMMANDED THEM, [SO] SHALL YE OBSERVE TO DO: which shows the they were not to comply with their orders, and conform to them, any further than they agreed with the commands of God, and

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 *)....

AS. ACCORDING AS. But. special various reading called _Sevir_ (App-34) reads "which", or "for that"....

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....