There’s nothing more interesting than a general store, and chapters like these sure look like one.
Maybe the reason these sections of Scripture are arranged the way they are, with sudden topic changes, is to keep readers from being lulled to sleep. You know what it’s like when there’s a very long section on one topic. Not in these chapters! We have one verse about not taking “the lower or the upper millstone in pledge” (Deut 24:6). In modern terms, if a tradesman borrowed money from you, don’t take the tools of their trade, because they can’t work to make a living. Then, without a break, God decrees capital punishment for kidnapping (v 7), and, while we’re talking about that, let’s note the next verse: “Take heed in an outbreak of leprosy, that you carefully observe and do according to all that the priests, the Levites, shall teach you” (v 8). Ah, I see—hijacking and hygiene follow each other. And, so we don’t get bored, we then go back to the subject of pledges, what we today call collateral or security for a loan. First, don’t go barging into a man’s house to select your pledge (vv 10-11); recognize the right to personal property. Second, poor people often have no valuables, only necessities. If you’re holding a coat as security, “you shall not keep his pledge overnight” (v 12), “that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you” (v 13). As well, employees were to be paid daily so they could buy their daily food—no fridges and freezers in those days. Now we have three more subjects before the chapter closes. Justice meant that fathers were not punished for their children’s sins, or vice versa (v 16). Don’t even think of taking a widow’s garment as a pledge (vv 17-18). And remember to leave some grain, olives, and grapes in your fields for the poor to reap (vv 19-22). There. You see? No time to get bored in a chapter like that!