deuteronomy 21-22

Read Deuteronomy 21-22 at Bible Gateway.

God’s paragraph divisions will help us understand today’s reading:

Deu 21:1-9 {s} Atonement for unsolved bloodshed

I believe this paragraph is a continuation of the explanation of Do not commit murder. It’s focus is how to gain atonement for innocent bloodshed, when it is not known who the murderer is (therefore it is not known who to enforce the sentence of capital punishment on, which atones for innocent bloodshed).

Deu 21:10-14 {s} Treatment of the captive woman

At first glance we think this might have something to do with Do not commit murder, because the context is warfare, as some of the other paragraphs regarding Do not commit murder were in the context of warfare. But, notice:

“… and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, …” Deu 21:11

This is a shift of topic. We are no longer dealing with the slain or justice for the slain, or what may or may not cause death unjustly. We are dealing with intimacy and marriage. So let us proceed for now on the assumption that Deu 21:1-9 ends the explanation of Do not commit murder, and Deu 21:10-14 begins the explanation of Do not commit adultery.

In the ancient world, it was customary for the victorious army to wreak its lust for blood, rape, and spoil on the conquered city. Rape of a captive woman is adultery, a violation of the sanctity of marital intimacy. God is not telling the men of the army outright that they cannot take to wife a captive woman. But by imposing a full month’s cooling off period, while the captive woman mourns her father and mother in sackcloth and ashes, with a shaved head and unkempt nails, God is protecting the captive woman from falling victim to rape in the heat of the moment. If the man still desires her after a month, he may take her to wife, however, a bald and unkempt woman who has red eyes from crying for a month, would most likely appear quite a bit less beautiful. However, if the man humbles her by taking her as a wife, she shall be treated as a full wife. He must delight in his wife! If not, he shall not enslave her but set her free!

For further study: There are many paragraphs according to God’s paragraph divisions in these two chapters, and we have only discussed two of them! Mark them (the Hebrew Bible in English has them) and see if you can see the connection to Do not commit adultery. Since the final paragraph of chapter 22 has to do with who may not be taken to wife, my assumption is that all of the paragraphs in these two chapters are explaining Do not commit adultery, or Honor the sanctity of marital intimacy.

Finding Messiah:

“If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, you shall put him to death, and you shall hang him on a tree. His body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.” Deu 21:22-23

“Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” Joh 19:31

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed in everyone who hangs on a tree’), …” Gal 3:13

For further reading:
do not commit adultery