The Pledge and the Gleaning
10 When you lend your neighbor any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge outside to you. 12 If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. 13 You shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. It shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God. 14 You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. 15 In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you. 16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. 17 You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge; 18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there. Therefore I command you to do this thing. 19 When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 21 When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this thing.
A lender may not enter the house to take his security, wages must be paid the same day, and what the harvesters miss belongs to somebody else.
The rules about lending are about dignity, and each one costs the lender something.
He may not go inside to collect the security: you shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge outside to you Deuteronomy 24:10–11.
The borrower chooses what to hand over and the lender does not see the inside of his house. A poor man's home is not opened for inspection because he owes money, and the humiliation of having a creditor walk through it is removed.
If the pledge is a garment, it goes back at sunset — that he may sleep in his garment and bless you Deuteronomy 24:13. A cloak was a poor man's bedding. The security may be held all day and must be returned every night, which makes it nearly useless as security and entirely effective as a reminder of what the transaction is.
And the return is called righteousness to you before Yahweh your God.
Wages come next, and the rule is one day. In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it, for he is poor and sets his heart on it Deuteronomy 24:15.
The reason given is not fairness in the abstract but the man's expectation. A day laborer has been thinking about that payment since morning, and his family eats tonight or not. Delay is treated as oppression, and it applies to one of the foreigners as much as to a brother Deuteronomy 24:14.
Verse 16 is a principle the prophets later build on: the fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin Deuteronomy 24:16. It is the ground on which a king spares his father's assassins' children 2 Chronicles 25:4, and the rule Ezekiel restates when the exiles blame their parents Ezekiel 18:20.
The gleaning laws close the chapter, and their mechanism is forgetting. When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it Deuteronomy 24:19.
A sheaf left by accident becomes somebody else's property the moment it is left. Olives are beaten once and not gone over again; a vineyard is not picked twice Deuteronomy 24:20–21. The inefficiency is the point — a harvest is not to be maximized, and the margin belongs to the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.
Twice in four verses the reason is the same: you were a slave in the land of Egypt Deuteronomy 24:18 Deuteronomy 24:22.
settled What this mark means