Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 24:14–end
Here, I. Masters are commanded to be just to their poor servants, Deu 24:14, Deu 24:15. 1. They must not oppress them, by overloading them with work, by giving them undue and unreasonable rebukes, or by withholding from them proper maintenance. A servant, though a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, must not be abused: "For thou wast a bondman in the land where thou wast a stranger (Deu 24:18), and thou knowest what a grievous thing it is to be oppressed by a task-master, and therefore, in tenderness to those that are servants and strangers, and in gratitude to that God who set thee at liberty and settled thee in a country of thy own, thou shalt not oppress a servant." Let not masters be…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Deuteronomy 24:16
The fathers shall not be put to death for the children--The rule was addressed for the guidance of magistrates, and it established the equitable principle that none should be responsible for the crimes of others.
John Gill on Deuteronomy 24:18
But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt,.... The remembrance of which may cause sympathy with persons in distress; particularly the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow:
and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence; the Targum of Jonathan,"the Word of the Lord thy God;''which, as it was an act of great kindness and mercy in God to them, taught them, and laid them under obligation to show favour to their fellow creatures in distress:
therefore I command thee to do this thing: not to pervert the judgment of the stranger and fatherless, nor take a widow's raiment for a pledge; and it may be carried further into the context, and respect the laws about the pledge of the poor m…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Deuteronomy 24:16-18
Deuteronomy 24:16
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.
16. Non interficientur patres pro filiis, neque filii interficientur pro patribus: quisque in peccato suo morietur.
Here also God manifests how great is His regard for human life, so that blood should not be shed indiscriminately, when he forbids that children should be involved in the punishment of their parents. Nor was this Law by any means supererogatory, because on account of one man's crime his whole race was often severely dealt with. It is not without cause, therefore, that God interposes for the…
