5 When a man takes a new wife, he is not to go out with the army or be given any business or work duties. He gets one year off simply to be at home making his wife happy. 6 Don't seize a handmill or an upper millstone as collateral for a loan. You'd be seizing someone's very life. 7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his kinsmen, someone of the People of Israel, to enslave or sell him, the kidnapper must die. Purge that evil from among you. 8 Warning! If a serious skin disease breaks out, follow exactly the rules set down by the Levitical priests. Follow them precisely as I commanded them. 9 Don't forget what God, your God, did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt. 10 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, don't enter his house to claim his pledge. 11 Wait outside. Let the man to whom you made the pledge bring the pledge to you outside. 12 And if he is destitute, don't use his cloak as a bedroll; 13 return it to him at nightfall so that he can sleep in his cloak and bless you. In the sight of God, your God, that will be viewed as a righteous act.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Deuteronomy 24:5-13
Commentary on Deuteronomy 24:5-13
(Read Deuteronomy 24:5-13)
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, nor should this ever be looked upon as weakness.