When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive, and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and desire to take her as your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails. She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
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Deuteronomy 21:10-13 sits inside this longer paragraph.
When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive, and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and desire to take her as your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails. She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires; but you shall not sell her at all for money. You shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
Parallel Translations
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When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands and you carry them away captive,
and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her, and desire to take her as your wife,
then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails.
She shall take off the clothing of her captivity, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
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When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,
And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;
Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.
Show all 3 translations
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When thou goest forth to battle against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God delivereth them into thy hands, and thou carriest them away captive,
and seest among the captives a woman of goodly form, and thou hast a desire unto her, and wouldest take her to thee to wife;
then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thy house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month; and after that thou mayest go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Commandments (1)
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
Cross-references (18)
- Genesis 6:2 (v11) God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives.
- Genesis 12:14-15 (v11) When Abram had come into Egypt, Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to…
- Genesis 29:18-20 (v11) Jacob loved Rachel. He said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to…
- Genesis 34:3 (v11) His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady.
- Genesis 34:8 (v11) Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.
Show all 18 cross-references
- Leviticus 14:9 (v12) It shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall…
- Numbers 6:9 (v12) “ ‘If any man dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles the head of his separation, then he shall shave his head in the day of his…
- Numbers 31:18 (v11) But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
- Deuteronomy 20:10-16 (v10) When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. It shall be, if it gives you answer of peace and opens to you,…
- Judges 14:2-3 (v11) He came up, and told his father and his mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore…
- Psalms 45:10-11 (v13) Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear. Forget your own people, and also your father’s house. So the king will desire your beauty,…
- Proverbs 6:25 (v11) Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.
- Proverbs 31:10 (v11) Who can find a worthy woman? For her price is far above rubies.
- Proverbs 31:30 (v11) Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman who fears Yahweh, she shall be praised.
- Luke 14:26-27 (v13) “If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he…
- 1 Corinthians 11:6 (v12) For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or be shaved, let…
- Ephesians 4:22 (v12) that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,
- Joshua 21:44 (v10) Yahweh gave them rest all around, according to all that he swore to their fathers. Not a man of all their enemies stood before them. Yahweh…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Signifying that her former life must be changed before…
Signifying that her former life must be changed before she could be joined to the people of God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Deu 21:11 And seest among the captives a beautiful…
Deu 21:11 And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;
Ver. 11. And hast a desire unto her.] This was permitted them, as divorce was, ob duricordium. But that is a base passage in the Turk’s Koran, that God did not give men such appetites to have them frustrate, but enjoyed, as made for the gust of man, not for his torment, wherein his Creator delights not; and therefore they hold it lawful for a man to marry as many wives as he is able to maintain.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv10–13 Thine enemies, of other nations, but not of the…
Thine enemies, of other nations, but not of the Canaanites, for they might not spare their women, and much less marry them, Exo 34:16; Deu 7:3.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v10 By this law a soldier is allowed to marry…
By this law a soldier is allowed to marry his captive if he pleased. For the hardness of their hearts Moses gave them this permission, lest, if they had not had liberty given them to marry such, they should have taken liberty to defile themselves with them, and by such wickedness the camp would have been troubled. The man is supposed to have a wife already, and to take this wife for a secondary wife, as the Jews called them. This indulgence of men's inordinate desires, in which their hearts walked after their eyes, is by no means agreeable to the law of Christ, which therefore in this respect, among others, far exceeds in glory the law of Moses. The gospel permits not him that has one wife to take another, for from the beginning it was not so. The gospel forbids looking upon a woman, though a beautiful one, to lust after her, and commands the mortifying and denying of all irregular desires, though it be as uneasy as the cutting off of a right hand; so much does our holy religion, more than that of the Jews, advance the honour and support the dominion of the soul over the body, the spirit over the flesh, consonant to the glorious discovery it makes of life and immortality, and the better hope.
But, though military men were allowed this liberty, yet care is here taken that they should not abuse it, that is,
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I. That they should not abuse themselves by doing it too hastily, though the captive was ever so desirable: "If thou wouldest have her to thy wife (Deu 21:10, Deu 21:11), it is true thou needest not ask her parents' consent, for she is thy captive, and is at thy disposal. But, 1. Thou shalt have no familiar intercourse till thou hast married her." This allowance was designed to gratify, not a filthy brutish lust, in the heat and fury of its rebellion against reason and virtue, but an honourable and generous affection to a comely and amiable person, though in distress; therefore he may make her his wife if he will, but he must not deal with her as with a harlot. 2. "Thou shalt not marry her of a sudden, but keep her a full month in thy house," Deu 21:12, Deu 21:13. This he must do either, (1.) That he may try to take his affection off from her; for he must know that, though in marrying her he does not do ill (so the law then stood), yet in letting her alone he does much better. Let her therefore shave her head, that he might not be enamoured with her locks, and let her nails grow (so the margin reads it), to spoil the beauty of her hand. Quisquid amas cupias non placuisse nimis - We should moderate our affection for those things which we are tempted to love inordinately. Or rather, (2.) This was done in token of her renouncing idolatry, and becoming a proselyte to the Jewish religion. The shaving of her head, the paring of her nails, and the changing of her apparel, signified her putting off her former conversation, which was corrupt in her ignorance, that she might become a new creature. She must remain in his house to be taught the good knowledge of the Lord and the worship of him: and the Jews say that if she refused, and continued obstinate in idolatry, he must not marry her. Note, The professors of religion must not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, Co2 6:14.
II. That they should not abuse the poor captive. 1. She must have time to bewail her father and mother, from whom she was separated, and without whose consent and blessing she is now likely to be married, and perhaps to a common soldier of Israel, though in her country ever so nobly born and bred. To force a marriage till these sorrows were digested, and in some measure got over, and she was better reconciled to the land of her captivity by being better acquainted with it, would be very unkind. She must not bewail her idols, but be glad to part with them; to her near and dear relations only her affection must be thus indulged. 2. If, upon second thoughts, he that had brought her to his house with a purpose to marry her changed his mind and would not marry her, he might not make merchandise of her, as of his other prisoners, but must give her liberty to return, if she pleased, to her own country, because he had humbled her and afflicted her, by raising expectations and then disappointing them (Deu 21:14); having made a fool of her, he might not make a prey of her. This intimates how binding the laws of justice and honour are, particularly in the pretensions of love, the courting of affections, and the promises of marriage, which are to be looked upon as solemn things, that have something sacred in them, and therefore are not to be jested with.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–13 When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies,....…
When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies,.... This refers to an arbitrary war, as Jarchi remarks, which they entered into of themselves, of choice, or through being provoked to it by their enemies; and not a war commanded by the Lord, as that against the seven nations of Canaan, and against Amalek; since there were to be no captives in that war, but all were to be destroyed:
and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands; given them the victory over their enemies, so that they were obliged to surrender themselves to them prisoners of war:
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and thou hast taken them captive, or "led his or their captivity (b) captive"; led them captive who used to lead others, denoting their conquest of victorious nations; see a like phrase in Psa 68:18.
(b) "et captivam duxerit captivitatem ejus", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv10–13 Enemies - Of other nations, but not of the…
Enemies - Of other nations, but not of the Canaanites.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11–12 Verse 11. And seest - a beautiful woman] No…
Verse 11. And seest - a beautiful woman] No forcible possession was allowed even in this case, when the woman was taken in war, and was, by the general consent of ancient nations, adjudged as a part of the spoils. The person to whose lot or share such a woman as is here described fell, might, if he chose, have her for a wife on certain conditions; but he was not permitted to use her under any inferior character.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv11–12 Deu 21:11. And hast a desire unto her —…
Deu 21:11. And hast a desire unto her — Moses here returning to the case of war with the neighbouring nations, directs that, if a Hebrew soldier conceived a peculiar regard for a captive woman, and desired to marry her, he must not do it immediately after she became his prisoner, it being of dangerous consequence for the Israelites to marry Gentile wives. He was first to keep the woman in his house for a month, at least, where she was to live in the retirement and habit of a mourner, for the loss of her parents and her country; as also to give her time to be instructed in the knowledge of the true God and his will, and renounce her idolatrous worship, and to allow him sufficient space to try whether his affection for her was calm and steady, or might cool and wear off. If this interval caused no abatement of his love, but, upon her turning proselyte, he still desired to make her his wife, he might then lawfully do it.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv10, 12, 13 The regulations which now follow in the rest of…
The regulations which now follow in the rest of this and throughout the next chapter bring out the sanctity of various personal rights and relations fundamental to human life and society.
Deu 21:10-14. The war supposed here is one against the neighboring nations after Israel had utterly destroyed the Canaanites (compare Deu 7:3), and taken possession of their land.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv10–13 Captives. Some Rabbins say this was only lawful in…
Captives. Some Rabbins say this was only lawful in what they call voluntary wars, which the Lord had not commanded, as in those which were waged against the devoted nations it was not permitted to reserve the women, even though they should embrace the true religion. Calmet seems to be of the same opinion in the proceeding chapter, to which he even refers. But here he thinks that, upon their complying with the condition specified, they might be married, as Rahab was, and consequently this law must be considered as an exception to those general laws, which prohibit matrimony with those nations of Chanaan, which were otherwise ordered to be entirely destroyed, chap. vi. 16. "We believe," says he, "that if these women changed their religion, they might be espoused, of whatever nation they may be." He seems still to exclude the Chanaanite women, (chap. xxiii. 3,) which variation of sentiment shews that the point is not to be easily decided. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v10 The Seventh Commandment
The Seventh Commandment
Deu_21:10-23
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10When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, 11And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast [holdest] a desire; unto her, that thou wouldest have [and takest] her to thy wife; 12Then thou shalt bring [And bringest] her home to thine house, and [so] she shall shave her head, and pare 13[make, make right] her nails: And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month [so many days]: and after that, thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. 14And it shall be, if thou have no delight [more] in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will [go after her soul, desire]; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money; thou shalt not make merchandise of her [treat her harshly], because thou hast humbled her. 15If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have borne him children [sons], both the beloved and the hated; and if the first-born son be hers that was hated: 16Then it shall be, when [at the day] he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may [see, Deu_7:22; Deu_12:17] not make the son of the beloved first-born, before the son of the hated, which is indeed [om. which is indeed] the first-born: 17But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for [om. for] the first-born, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath [all that is found with him]: for he is the beginning 18[firstling] of his strength; the right of the first-born is his. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 19Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 20And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton [spendthrift] and a drunkard. 21And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou [and thou shalt] put evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear, and fear. 22And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: 23His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God [the curse of God];) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Deu_21:10-14. Moses comes first to speak of the seventh command, its explanation and application, as after the possession of Canaan, thus entirely as Deu_20:1, and consequently with reference to enemies not Canaanites (Deu_7:3), from whom an Israelite might take himself a wife. Deu_21:10 (Deu_20:13). שְׁבִי and שִׁבְיָה (Deu_21:11), pro concrete, captives. Deu_21:11. Comp. Gen_29:17; Gen_34:8 (Deu_7:7; Deu_10:15). The circumstance was natural and human, but also leads to regulated and enduring relations. And takest, sq., namely to thy wife, otherwise the bringing her home would be out of place. But to this insertion into the home there must follow a not less natural and humane severing of previous relations on the part of the woman. As the head is to be shaven, the clothing in which she was captured to be put off, so the making is to average, set right the nails, i.e. to cut them (2Sa_19:25). Not as the pietists among the Rabbins, to make herself repulsive, and deter the son of Israel from the heathen; nor even as a mourning custom (Deu_14:1; Lev_21:5), in which they permitted the nails to grow, unless the cutting was practised under the supposition of colored nails; but as outwardly in the body and clothing, so inwardly she should have time through the mourning to detach herself from her previous relations (comp. Lev_14:8; Num_6:9; Num_8:7). Her defenceless condition, beyond the pale of law, secures her human sympathy. The transition from heathenism was not indeed symbolized; but in so tender and affecting an indulgence of the human, a preparation for the way to the divine could scarcely fail (Psa_45:10). The marriage relation (Deu_21:13) is a dominion, Deu_24:1. But because it was marriage, Deu_21:14, therefore a formal separation (Mat_19:8), that she might go out free whither she would (Jer_34:16). Comp. Exo_21:8; Exo_21:11; Deu_24:7. The humiliation extended to the captivity, the taking to wife (especially Deu_22:24). One act of violence should not be followed by another and harsher. [The law was obviously fitted to restrain the violence of lawless passion. The month’s delay would test the sincerity and purity of the love or desire. If at its expiration he still delighted in her to take her for a wife, then she was to become his wife; if not, then she was to go out free. He could not treat her as a slave; neither sell her nor treat her with constraint. It was a merciful provision for those who were regarded as the spoils of war.—A. G.]
2. Deu_21:15-17. There may be also a second wife which a man takes, and indeed the beloved one; therefore, in the second place, what should be of force in regard to such a marriage—marriage direction (Schultz). Deu_21:15. The case was similar to that of Jacob, the father of the people, Gen_29:30. In such a case it depends more and more at last upon love and hatred (Gen_29:31). Comp. Mat_6:24; Luk_14:26; Rom_9:13 (1Sa_1:5-6). Moses, however, must indulge the custom; its morality is not therewith conceded; he limits it in its practical consequences. Thus, moreover, the very natural transfer from the mothers to their sons. The preference, Deu_21:16, should not give superiority in reference to the inheritance, the position in the family; it must respect the natural right, the priority in this regard must be allowed. על־ (comp. Deu_5:7) is not while the same remains alive; that is self-evident. The right of primogeniture, Deu_21:17, פי שניס, mouth, two mouthfuls, i.e. one time as much more as to each and every other son, concerns merely the inheritance. He represents the family generally after the father’s death. Comp. still Gen_49:3.
3. Deu_21:18-21. As in the foregoing, the direction concerning marriage embraces parents and children, so thirdly Deu_21:18 sq., the wedded life expressly on the side of the children. There may be a son, who appears to his father worthy of preference, and not merely as before on his mother’s account, but who is also rejected by him, and at the same time by his mother, and indeed entirely through his son’s misconduct. Comp. upon Deu_4:36; Deu_8:5. He disputes the parental, i.e., divine authority in disposition and life, and indeed although it has been held before him, thus with full knowledge and purpose. Deu_21:19. The mother agrees with the father so that it is publicly witnessed. With the parental,the civil authority is also endangered, and hence the case passes from that, to this (comp. Deu_17:5). The elders do not appear as judges, for Deu_21:20, the mere accusation, as at the same time proceeding from both parents, is satisfactorily confirmed through the specification: Glutton, sq., (Pro_23:30; Pro_28:7) and requires no further proof or judicial investigation (Mat_11:19). Upon, Deu_21:21 comp. Pro_19:18. When the parents are the accusers they should not also cast the stones. When the whole city agrees, the case moreover lies beyond question. Comp. Deu_13:11; Deu_6:12. [Parental authority is upheld, but at the same time guarded. The power of life and death does not vest in the Israelitish father.—A. G.].
4. Deu_21:22-23, Give the conclusion to the deuteronomic completion of the seventh commandment, whose transgression draws after it the death penalty (Schultz). But it is not of the death penalty generally which the discourse here treats in this appendix to the foregoing paragraph, but of a peculiar, significant, intensifying of the death-sentence, as it appears in the procedure with the person executed. The rebellion against the power and glory of God in the parental authority, on the part of a son to be stoned, gives the connection. The surrender of the same, by both parents, to the executive of the city, is already as a curse of God. Deu_21:22. Comp. upon Deu_19:6. The suspending of the body on the tree, (probably a post similar to a cross) raised to some extent the executed from the earth, which he was no longer worthy to tread, and held him heavenwards, as without hope, and for the sorer vengeance of God. (Num_25:4; Gen_40:19; Jos_10:26). That day upon which he was slain, and afterwards hanged, before the sunset. קללת, the word contains the idea; to reject as detestable, wherefore the one cursed of God must be removed as soon as possible out of sight, from off the land given by God, which is defiled (morally, not physically, not even levitically) by him (Lev_18:24; Lev_18:28; Num_35:34). “Then rests the blessing eye of Jehovah ever upon the land of Israel (Deu_11:12) and this divine blessing must overcome and remove every curse.” Baumgarten. Comp. upon Gal_3:13. According to the Talmud: “For one hanged has cursed God (because this intense emphatic punishment was usual only in cases of blasphemy”). Raschi: “For it is an injury to God, sq.,” when he who is made in the image of God remains longer so detestable a spectacle. Comp. Joh_19:31. [“Suspension whether from cross, stake or gallows, was not used as a mode of taking life, but in cases of peculiar atrocity was added after death to enhance the punishment, and, as the Rabbins held, only for the crimes of idolatry and cursing God. The command, Num_25:4-5, appears to mean that the rebels should be first slain, and then impaled or nailed to crosses. The word used there is different from that used here.” “The grounds of the emphatic detestation expressed in the text against him that is hanged, depend in some degree on the exact rendering of the words. The case attached to קללת (see Lightfoot, Galatians, p. 150) may denote either the person who pronounces the curse (Jdg_9:57), or the person against whom it is pronounced (Gen_27:13). We may explain therefore either ‘he that is hanged is accursed of God,’ as Sept., Vul., Syr., St. Paul, Gal_3:13, and most Christian commentators, or he that is hanged is a curse (injury, insult, mockery) to God, as by most Jewish commentators since the second century of the Christian era. There can be no doubt that the former rendering is the original and correct one.” Bib. Com. See also Lange, Galatians, Brown on Galatians, and Wordsworth.—A. G.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The relations of war offer a fitting occasion for the exercise of humanity (Deu_1:6 to Deu_4:40; Doct. and Eth. 3). The general human love, which as placed by God in the heart of every man is sacred, and is to be heartily esteemed, is made availing directly over against passion, as in the special case, Deu_21:11. Thus should the sacred ties which bind men to their parents (Deu_21:13), and the worth and dignity of human personality (Deu_21:14) have influence with Israel in its relations to the not-Israel.
2. That Israel is elastic enough for a relation of love, even of marriage with foreign women, shows again its destination for humanity at large.
3. The deep, quiet reverence exerts its influence upon the prevalent custom to which Moses refers, and becomes a protection here to the lowly wife, a captive in war, and unable to make any resistance. The passion is elevated in the form of marriage; still more the wife appears, and indeed in her most helpless form, as justified over against her husband.
4. The form of marriage which Moses must allow here for the time, is generally that of polygamy. But its opposition to the original marriage ordinance he has established already, Gen_2:22; Gen_2:24, as Christ also refers to the same original ordinance against divorce. What is self-evident in the woman, as she is brought by God to the man, her entire personal concession to her husband, for which reason he would have her called “woman;” that is the duty of the husband to his wife, since it is not uttered first as a command, but only as an actual fact, as the most natural thing which could occur, Gen_2:24. Polygamy, on the contrary, with respect to the man bears the character of unfaithfulness, instead of “being one flesh,” of the restless and unsatisfied lust of the flesh. When on the part of the wife, envy, jealousy, bitterness, appear as the results of the polygamous relation, then we see first the wretchedness, the impossibility of a polygamous institution, to which all the hints of Moses (Deu_21:15 sq.; Deu_21:18 sq.) point. Monogamy has its necessity in the very nature of marriage; it is indeed its very idea. Hence there is no necessity that the law should enjoin it, but wait until the custom has developed itself in and through the morality of the idea of marriage. While polygamy draws man to bestiality (Baumgarten: “Because the woman has not yet been restored to her full personality from the fall through the word of the serpent”), is thus therefore far removed from humanity, the humanity of the monogamous marriage reaches perfection in the mystery (Eph. 5:36) in regard to Christ and the Church. Where there is no mutual esteem of the individual,and of the personality, e.g., where the system of slavery exists, there polygamy prevails, and it follows therefore that everything in Deuteronomy which promotes and confirms human rights, strikes a blow at the very root of polygamy.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Deu_21:10-11. Wurth. Bib.: “Parents, partners, children, are often torn asunder in war, and do not see each other again; let us therefore pray diligently: Thou, dear Lord God, preserve us from war and bloodshed.” Deu_21:14. Osiander: “God looks with pity upon the wretchedness of the captive, Gen_39:3 sq.; 21 sq.” Deu_21:15 sq. Starke: “The case is quite different with respect to Cain, Esau, Reuben.” Tub. Bib.: “It is the bounden duty of parents to be impartial towards their children.” Deu_21:18 sq. Starke: “The Jews infer thence, that God makes no distinction between fathers and mothers. All other duties are included under obedience.” Baumgarten: “The true divine ordinance in this region is overstepped in two directions: through strictness, which amounts to cruelty; by levity, which passes into weakness: the former in the periods of rude unbroken society; the latter in those more civilized. The law of Moses here given is a bitter but wholesome pill to the base and shameful tenderness under which we suffer and are corrupted at present. According to the Talmud this law was never executed. Comp. further 2Sa_18:17. What the rod of the parents neglects or does not reach, ofttimes makes a demand upon the hangman.” Deu_21:22 sq. Baumgarten: “That this removal from the earth may be designated as an exaltation and redemption (Joh_3:14; Joh_12:32) requires the whole divine almighty power of Christ, who overcame even the abyss of hell, and takes possession of heaven.” Schultz: “In the New Testament the death-penalty for the child vanishes with the received possibility of conversion. The disfiguring of the executed after his death finds its discharge in the death of the Redeemer upon the cross. Is the death-penalty, viewed in relation to the atoning death of Christ, still Christian?” Richter: “The removal from the cursed tree, and the burial have their goal also in Christ, in whom guilt and the curse are done away, the law has its satisfaction, the earth is purified, that the blessing may come upon all nations, Gal_3:14.” Calvin: The destination of the human race is to be buried, both as a pledge and symbol of the resurrection, and that the living may be spared the sight, and escape contamination from such a spectacle. [“Christ was made a curse for us, Gal_3:13, and thus redeemed us from the curse of the law, not only dying for our sins, but suffering that particular kind of death which the law had specified as that of those who were under a curse of God. He summed up all mankind in Himself, being the second Adam, and by being in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom_8:3), and yet perfectly sinless, He paid a sufficient penalty and made adequate satisfaction for the sins of all whom He represented by shedding His own most precious blood, and bare our sins in His own body on the tree (1Pe_2:24), and took them upon Himself, and took away from us the curse of the law under which all mankind lay for disobedience; and by His perfect obedience in our nature presented us in a state of acceptability with God, and became the Lord our Righteousness, in whom we are justified before Him.” Wordsworth.—A. G.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v10 THE TREATMENT OF A CAPTIVE TAKEN TO WIFE. (Deu…
THE TREATMENT OF A CAPTIVE TAKEN TO WIFE. (Deu 21:10-23)
When thou goest to war . . . and seest among the captives a beautiful woman . . . that thou wouldest have her to thy wife--According to the war customs of all ancient nations, a female captive became the slave of the victor, who had the sole and unchallengeable control of right to her person. Moses improved this existing usage by special regulations on the subject. He enacted that, in the event that her master was captivated by her beauty and contemplated a marriage with her, a month should be allowed to elapse, during which her perturbed feelings might be calmed, her mind reconciled to her altered condition, and she might bewail the loss of her parents, now to her the same as dead. A month was the usual period of mourning with the Jews, and the circumstances mentioned here were the signs of grief--the shaving of the head, the allowing the nails to grow uncut, the putting off her gorgeous dress in which ladies, on the eve of being captured, arrayed themselves to be the more attractive to their captors. The delay was full of humanity and kindness to the female slave, as well as a prudential measure to try the strength of her master's affections. If his love should afterwards cool and he become indifferent to her person, he was not to lord it over her, neither to sell her in the slave market, nor retain her in a subordinate condition in his house; but she was to be free to go where her inclinations led her.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv10, 12 DIRECTIONS RESPECTING FEMALE WAR-CAPTIVES, Deu_21:10-14.
DIRECTIONS RESPECTING FEMALE WAR-CAPTIVES, Deu_21:10-14.
The directions that follow must refer to captives that might be taken in war with the neighbouring nations after the Canaanites have been extirpated. The law was designed for the protection of the female captive, and was far in advance of the usages of the other nations of antiquity.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–13 10. When thou goest forth, etc.] see on Deu_20:1.…
10. When thou goest forth, etc.] see on Deu_20:1. Read enemy (sing.) because of the following: and the Lord thy God delivereth him into thine hands (see on Deu_1:27); and thou takest captives from him (lit. capturest his captives).
10–14. Of Marriage with a Captive of War
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If a woman taken in war is desired for a wife (Deu_21:11 f.), she may be brought home, but the marriage shall not take place till she has shaved her hair, pared her nails, put away her former garments, and mourned her parents for a month (Deu_21:12 f.). If her husband’s love for her fades he may let her go out free (Deu_21:14).—In the Sg. address, with no feature incompatible with D’s authorship, and impressed by his spirit both of humanity and of caution against infection by foreign idolatries. Yet in the light of Deu_7:3, forbidding marriage with the people of the land, and Deu_20:16 commanding that in war they shall all be put to death, this law can only refer to captives taken in distant wars, Deu_20:10-15. See further general note, introd. to ch. 20. There is no parallel in any other codes.
Mohammed permitted a female captive (though previously married) to become at once the concubine of her captor. But this is not Arab custom. ‘Women are not taken captive in the Arabian warfare, though many times a poor valiant man might come by a fair wife thus without his spending for bride-money’ (Doughty Ar. Des. ii. 148).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v10 Deu_21:10-14. MARRIAGE OF CAPTIVE WOMEN.
Deu_21:10-14. MARRIAGE OF CAPTIVE WOMEN.
(10, 11) When thou . . . seest among the captives a beautiful woman.—This could not be among the seven nations, of whom it is said (Deu_20:1-6), “thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.” But it may well apply to the recent case of the Midianitish maidens (Num_31:15-18), who had been taken captive in great numbers, and would naturally be reduced to slavery. It is clear from this passage that they could not be treated as concubines.
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(12) Shall shave her head, and pare her nails.—Rashi’s view is that the object of this order is to spoil the beauty of the captive. The long hair is to be cut off, and the nails pared. On this last point the Targums differ; one taking the view that they are to be left to grow and the other the opposite interpretation. In 2Sa_19:24, there are two examples of the use of the word in the sense of attending to the person. The correct interpretation in this place depends upon the purpose for which the thing was to be done. If the intention was any kind of purification, and long or taper nails were considered an ornament (as by some Eastern nations), it is more probable that the nails were to be cut short.
(13) The raiment of her captivity.—Rashi takes this to mean the beautiful raiment put on for the purpose of attracting her captors. (Compare Jezebel’s attempt to captivate Jehu, 2Ki_9:30.) Whatever may be the precise intent of these several instructions, it is clear that the law is intended to encourage lawful marriage, and no other form of union. In this view it throws an important light upon the treatment of the Midianitish captives in Numbers 31
(14) Thou shalt not make merchandise of her.—This shows that, in ordinary cases, these captives would be sold as slaves, without the restrictions imposed on Israelitish slavery. (See Lev_25:44-46.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv10, 12, 13 Vers. 10-14. If an Israelite saw among captives taken…
Vers. 10-14. If an Israelite saw among captives taken in war a woman, fair of aspect, and loved her, and took her to be his wife, he was to allow her a full month to mourn her lost kindred, and become accustomed to her new condition, before he consummated his union with her. This refers to captives from other nations than those of Canaan, with whom the Israelites were to form no alliance, and whom they were not to take captive, but either wholly destroy or render tributary. (cf. Deu_7:3; Num_21:1, etc.; Jos_11:19)
Vers. 10-14. The female captive; or, Divine regard for woman"s safety and honor.
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Any one who is acquainted with the fearful license practiced among many nations towards female captives taken in war, can surely appreciate the humanizing influence which the injunction in this paragraph was intended to exert. The law here laid down may or may not be abstractly the best; but if it was the best that the people could bear: if it would certainly lift up the people a step higher in their regard for womanly honor: if, moreover, it would have the effect of enforcing a restraint upon the passions of men at that most perilous of all times, even that of war, then the hallowed influence which was shaping Hebrew legislation becomes clearly manifest. A woman taken captive as a prisoner of war was not to be a plaything of passion, but was to be dealt with honorably; to feel that she might part with the symbols of slavery, enter into relation with the covenant people, become invested with the rights of a daughter of Israel, and learn to worship, love, and glorify Israel"s God! (For details, see the Exposition, and also valuable remarks in Keil and Jameson.) And if, in the issue, there was no true and proper home for her, she was to have that most precious of blessings liberty! In opening up the theme suggested here Divine care for womans safety and honor some seven or eight lines of thought may be taken up and worked out by the preacher.
1. Here is a Divine protest against the tendency of men to make woman a mere tool of passion. This book is the charter of woman"s honor and happiness.
2. Our God would aim at bringing about the true nobility of woman, by means of educating the people up to the standard at which it shall be a point of honor with them to insist upon it.
3. To secure this end, Spate laws should be stringently framed.
4. Not even in war-time, nor in connection with our soldiery, is it ever to be tolerated that woman should be at the mercy of the stronger sex.
5. The right place of woman is in the love and protection of one to whom she is dearer than his own soul; and no more honorable place need she desire than that assigned her by Solomon in his description of "a virtuous woman." Many of the holy women of Scripture illustrate this.
6. Under the gospel, woman"s position is yet more strikingly asserted. "In Christ Jesus there is... neither male nor female." In religious relationship man and woman are, caeteris paribus, on an equal footing.
7. While, in the home, the wives are to be in subjection to their own husbands, yet the sway of the husband is to be with a love pure and tender, like that of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is only where the purifying and love-creating power of the gospel is known, that woman rises to her right position in the home, the family, the social circle, and the nation. The legislation on her behalf, which Moses began, has been going on under Judaism and Christianity for long ages, with what results we know in our happy homes. But how much we are indebted for these happy homes to the influence of Jewish and Christian law, can best be told by those who know the dark places of the earth, still "full of the habitations of cruelty.
Vers. 10-14. Through love to liberty.
We have here a regulation or law of war. Captives might be sold as slaves, but through love they might reach the position of a wife in a Jewish household, and if she did not please her conqueror, then she was to be made free again. So that the possible fate of the captive was "through love to liberty.
I LOVE IS THE BEST CURE FOR THE ILLS OF WAR. The men were to be slain: women might be kept as a prey. (Deu_20:14) It was a blessed issue when the conqueror was himself conquered by his captive. Then slavery was over, and love brought liberty. The passion of hate had given place to the passion of love. The better time had come.
II BUT THE PASSION MUST RE SUBJECT TO WISE RESTRAINT. A month"s mourning is allowed the beautiful captive, during which her person is sacred in the house of her captor. She bids farewell to her relations, whether living or dead, for she is going to be the wife of a Jew; and her intended husband has time to think quietly over his passion of love, and to see whether it is lasting or no.
III HER PRIVILEGE WAS TO BECOME THE FREE WIFE OF HER JEWISH LORD. If a happily ordered marriage, it must have been a joyful issue of the war. The terrible ordeal had proved to her the path to honor and social blessedness and peace. All the agony had given place to enlarging love.
IV AT THE VERY WORST, SHE REGAINED HER LIBERTY. The love had in this case proved transient she had not pleased him they would not be happy together. In such a case she was given a legal title to liberty. If not loved, she had the next best privilege of being free.
In this arrangement, consequently, we have love and liberty in the house of a husband; or liberty, if the love proves fickle and the match ill arranged. This was a beneficent arrangement compared with the licentiousness which usually accompanied war.
V WE MAY CONTRAST THIS WITH THE LOVE AND LIBERTY GUARANTEED US BY CHRIST JESUS. Our Lord, in fact, offers us his love, oh, how strong and bow true! And in his love there is liberty, the liberty wherewith he makes his people free. No uncertainty hangs over his offer to us; no slavery is possible in his house. We shall, in fact, have reason to bless him for conquering us for loving purposes, and any anguish his conquest may have cost us, will be amply compensated in his royal and limitless love.
Conquest, love, and liberty forever is the experience through which we pass in the hands of Jesus, the Conquering Hero, and no one ever regrets entering upon it, for it is enjoyment indeed! R.M.E.
Vers. 10-15. The captive wife.
The kindness, thoughtfulness, and strict justice of the Mosaic laws is very striking. The Law here interposes to secure
I CONSIDERATE TREATMENT OF ONE BEREAVED. (Vers. 10-14.) The case supposed comes under the law of Deu_20:14. The woman was a captive in war and a heathen, yet the Israelite is required to respect her chastity, and, if he conceive a passion for her, must not only make her his wife in a proper manner, but must allow her a full month to bewail her dead relatives. The question of religion is a difficult one in such cases, but we may suppose that no force was applied to captives and strangers further than forbidding to them the outward practice of idolatry. The laying aside of the symbols of captivity, and the purificatory rites of cutting the hair and nails, could only imply reception into the fellowship of the covenant nation in the event of the woman freely accepting Jehovah as her God. (cf. Rth_1:15, Rth_1:16)
Learn:
1. That the tumult and disorder of war is no excuse for immoral license.
2. We are to consider the situation and feelings of those whose circumstances place them at our mercy.
3. Natural affections are to be respected underneath all differences of creed and race.
II PROTECTION FOR ONE UNFRIENDED. (Ver. 14.) The captive stranger wedded to an Israelite was not left to be treated by him as he listed. Her unfriended position exposed her to the risk of suffering from her husband"s caprice and unfeelingness. While, therefore, he is permitted, if he lose delight in her, to divorce her for the "letting her go" must be construed in the light of Deu_24:3 he must on no account sell her or detain her as a captive. Another instance of God"s care for the stranger." Hasty marriages, founded on passion inspired by mere external attractions, seldom result in lasting happiness. J.O.
Vers. 10-14. The captor captured.
God"s laws are accommodations to human infirmities. To require from men summarily, and as the result of law, perfect conduct of life is impracticable. Hence legislation, to be successful, must be adapted to the case, and must lead by gradations to a nobler life. This law, though tolerant of lesser evil, is a marked amelioration of earlier custom a step towards order and purity.
I FEMALE BEAUTY WINS THE HEARTS EVEN OF WARRIORS. There are other conquests, and nobler, than military conquests. Beauty snatches the palm from strength. In the very hour of victory the conqueror has laid all his spoils at the feet of a gentle woman. Love rules the comp. External beauty has its uses. Real beauty is the exponent of some hidden worth. It eloquently says, "There is some goodness here: search and find it out." And beauty has its perils too it may excite sexual passion which cannot be controlled.
II CONJUGAL UNION IS TO RESULT, NOT FROM SUDDEN. PASSION, BUT FROM WELL-TRIED LOVE. This sudden desire to have his captive as his wife was required to be tested by time. Calm reflection is to precede a union so full of possible results. Beauty may fling her robe of color about the haze of dawn, but the gray haze of dawn does not constitute the day. Mere bloom on summer fruit will not meet the hunger of the man. Marriage is a temple of God, and must not be built on an imaginary foundation. The charm of the fair captive"s locks was to be temporarily removed, so that the lover"s desire might rest, not on fleeting accessories, but on personal worth. Ill-assorted marriages are a fertile curse. Sympathy in religion is essential to a prosperous marriage union.
III THE NATURAL FEELINGS OF WOMAN, AS WOMAN, ARE TO BE SCRUPULOUSLY RESPECTED. We may not understand all the purposes this Jewish law was designed to serve; but certain it is that, though a captive, the natural feeling of filial sorrow was to be allowed, yea, expected. To repress or root out the affectionate feeling of a daughter would be mutilation of the soul. A forgetful daughter will never be a worthy wife. Nothing in our external fortunes not even success in war warrants our playing the tyrant. It is for the benefit of the human racethat woman should be treated on equal terms. Her fine endowments have a noble part to play in the culture of humanity.
IV MARRIAGE HAS ITS DUTIES AS WELL AS ITS ENJOYMENTS. By the custom of that barbarous age, the captive, whether male or female, became the absolute property of the captor. He could reduce her to slavery. But if he chose to make her his wife, he conveyed to her rights which could not be alienated. It became henceforth his duty to protect her and all her interests. She was secure against the lust of avarice. God threw around her the shield of his sacred Law. But the very necessity for this commandment disclosed the rampant greed for gain which rules in some men. Thankful ought we to be that God removes such a possible temptation out of our way. Not by God"s consent is marriage ever contracted or terminated for the sake of money gain. D.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v10 The Law of Captive Women
The Law of Captive Women
v. 10. When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, those outside of Canaan, Deu 20:13-18, and the Lord, thy God, hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,
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v. 11. and seest among the captives a beautiful, well-formed woman, and hast a desire unto her, said of the love which desires union in lawful marriage, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife,
v. 12. then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails, that is, cut them, keep them trimmed, 2Sa 19:24;
v. 13. and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, all these acts being in the nature of purifying rites, Lev 14:8; Num 8:7, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month, that is, her separation from them; and after that thou shalt go in unto her, in the relation peculiar to marriage, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. During this month the woman would have time even inwardly to detach herself from her previous relations and to adjust herself to the idea of joining the people of God, if possible, to be filled with genuine affection for the God of Israel and also for the man, whose action in declaring his readiness to marry her had saved her from the position and lot of a slave.
v. 14. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, after the marriage had thus taken place, then thou shalt let her go whither she will, as a free woman, with the rights of an Israelitess; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, such a procedure was not to be thought of, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, not attempt a violent treatment of her by selling her as a slave, because thou hast humbled her, in making use of the right of a husband. This was a humane, merciful provision, intended to protect the dignity of the woman and the sanctity of marriage.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 13 General Information:
General Information:
Moses continues speaking to the people of Israel as if he were speaking to one man, so the words "you" and "your" are singular. (See: Forms of You)
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you go out
"you who are soldiers go out"
you have a desire for her
Use a polite phrase for "you want to sleep with her."
wish to take her for yourself as a wife
"want to marry her"
she will shave her head
"she will shave the hair off of her head"
cut her nails
"cut her fingernails"
translationWords
captive
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv12–13 21:12 To shave her head and cut her nails…
21:12 To shave her head and cut her nails demonstrated a captive woman’s separation from her home and family. She was cutting off the past to join a new family and community.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.