Explanation of the 7th Commandment: Do not commit adultery.
This commandment may also be stated positively, as, Honor the sanctity of marital intimacy.
Deu 21:10-14 {s} Treatment of the captive woman. 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 not be as appealing. 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.
Deu 21:15-17 {s} Treatment of the legitimate firstborn. This could also be restated, Do not reject the legitimate firstborn. The rejection is not based with the son, but with the son’s mother. The rejection of the mother, whose womb bore the children, is an assault on marital intimacy and a violation of Do not commit adultery, as that rejection opens the door for adultery.
Deu 21:18-21 {s} Treatment of the rebellious son. This is one of the hard commandments that gives God a bad name, because He judges with just judgment, is smarter than we are, and His ways are not our ways. The next generation is the fruit of marital intimacy. This commandment has to do with preserving the purity of the seed, the purity of the next generation. A son who will not obey his parents, even after repeated chastening, has proven that he is stiff- necked, not only against his parents, but also against God, for it was God who said, Honor your father and mother. We all know that one rotten apple can ruin the whole barrel. Rottenness is like leaven, it multiplies and spreads. Thus the numerous commands to purge out the leaven at Unleavened Bread, to completely purge the Canaanites and idolatry from the land without leaving one trace, etc.
Deu 21:22-23 {s} Treatment of the hanged criminal. The key to understanding this parsha, is the phrase, “so that you do not defile the land.” The last parsha on the rebellious son explained how not to defile the next generation. This parsha begins to explain how not to defile the land. What does this have to do with marital intimacy? I believe it is because, the nation of Israel as a whole, is the wife of YHVH! He is teaching by these parshas, how to maintain the purity of His wife in her separation only unto Him as her husband!
Continued in deuteronomy 22:1-23:14, do not commit adultery
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