Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Deuteronomy · About this commentary
The Escaped Slave
Deuteronomy 23:15-25
15 You shall not deliver to his master a servant who has escaped from his master to you. · WEB
A runaway is not returned but housed wherever he likes, and a hungry traveler may eat from any field but not harvest it.
You shall not deliver to his master a servant who has escaped from his master to you Deuteronomy 23:15.
Every legal system in the ancient world provided for the return of runaway slaves, usually with penalties for harboring them. This one forbids the return outright.
And it goes further than sanctuary. He shall dwell with you, among you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best. You shall not oppress him Deuteronomy 23:16.
He is not merely not handed back. He chooses where he lives — the choice is his, and the phrase where it pleases him best is unnecessary unless the point is that a man who has had no choices now has one. And a warning against exploiting him is attached, because a fugitive with no papers is the easiest person in the country to abuse.
The rule on lending follows the same instinct. You shall not lend on interest to your brother: interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything Deuteronomy 23:19.
The categories matter. Food is named, because a man who borrows grain is not investing; he is eating. Charging interest on a neighbor's hunger is what the law refuses, and the permission to charge a foreigner concerns commercial lending outside the covenant community rather than a licence to exploit strangers, whom this book repeatedly commands love toward Deuteronomy 10:19.
The vow law is short and sharp. A vow must be paid, and God will surely require it Deuteronomy 23:21. But: if you refrain from making a vow, it shall be no sin in you Deuteronomy 23:22.
Nobody is obliged to promise anything. The whole weight falls on the words once they are out — you shall observe and do that which has gone out of your lips Deuteronomy 23:23. The safest course is silence, and the same counsel is given later in almost the same terms Ecclesiastes 5:5.
The last two verses are among the most attractive in the code. A person passing through a vineyard may eat your fill of grapes at your own pleasure, and through standing grain may pluck the ears with your hand — but no container, and no sickle Deuteronomy 23:24–25.
A traveler may always eat. He may not harvest. The line falls exactly between hunger and profit, and it is drawn by what a man carries: hands are permitted, tools are not. This is the law the disciples were keeping when they were accused of something else entirely Matthew 12:1.
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