Laws for the Land (2 of 2)

In context

Ammonites and Moabites were kept out of the Lord’s assembly, because they had not met Israel “with bread and with water” and had hired Balaam to curse them (Deuteronomy 23:3–5); but an Edomite was not to be despised, “for he is your brother” (23:7).

Many laws protect the poor: give back a poor man’s cloak by sundown, “that he may sleep in his garment,” and pay a hired worker before the sun goes down (24:12–15). At harvest the forgotten sheaf, the olives left on the boughs and the last grapes were “for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow” (24:19–21). “Every man shall be put to death for his own sin,” not parents for children or children for parents (24:16).

The reading also has punishments of death, beating and a cut-off hand, and the command to blot out the memory of Amalek, who had attacked the weary at the back of the line (24:7; 25:1–3, 11–12, 17–19). The laws end with thanks: bringing a basket of first fruits, each farmer was to say, “My father was a Syrian ready to perish,” and tell how the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt (26:1–10). The Lord “has declared today that you are a people for his own possession” (26:18).