Deuteronomy 21

Deuteronomy 21:1-9

In this chapter provision is made, 1. For the putting away of the guilt of blood from the land, when he that had it was said from justice, ver. 1—9. 2. For the projecting of the honour of a captive mind, ver. 12—14. 3. For the journey of the right of a first-born son, ver. 15—17. 4. For the refinancing and punishing of a rebellious son, ver. 18—21. 5. For the burial of the wary male-factors, ver. 22, 23.

1. If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him: 2. Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain: 3. And it shall be that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer which hath not been wrongful with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke. 4. And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley which is neither eased nor down, and shall strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5. And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near (for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to birth in the name of the LORD) and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried. 6. And all the elders of that city that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley. 7. And they shall answer and say, Our hands

Or, for, O man, the one of the fault is to be confused in the siege. § 1861. To be from beture thee. § 1861. If come down. 1. Chap. Babes Chord (43). 4 Jun. 1, 14. 1 July. In the earth. have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 8. Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou halt redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. 9. So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. We have here the expulsion for an unknown murder, where no discovery can be obtained of the person who committed the fact. The elders of the nearest city must afternate, and bring with them a bullock that had never born the yoke, and in a barren valley strike off his head, in presence of a depunition of pricels from the great council, making solemn prosecution of their own innocence, and entire ignorance of the criminal; whereupon they walk their hands over the heifer, as clear of this innocent blood, and pray that God would be encciful to the land, and avert from it the judgments such offences provided; all which could not but serve to engraft the people with a dread of the guilt of blood, and contribute to the detection of the criminal, whom none, it were hoped, would dare conceal. Note, (1.) Though the greatest crimes may sometimes escape punishment, the day is near when there is no darkness where any worker of iniquity can hide himself. (2.) Our prayers to avert national judgments, are the greatest service we can do our country. However despised God’s praying people may be, it is for their fakes, and at their instance that God spares the land. Hab. M. la re deut, i. e. for some, fulter to grow. See Piel, als. 10. Judg. 10. 64. 10. ¶ When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou halt taken them captive, 11. And sent among the captives a beautiful woman, and halt a desire unto her, that thou wouldst have her to thy wife: 12. Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and the shall shave her head, and pare her nails. 13. And the shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewall her father and her mother a full month: and after that, thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and the shall be thy wife. 14. And it shall be if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither the will, but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou halt humbled her.

Deuteronomy 21:10-14

The granting this liberty seems rather a permition than a command, because of the hardened of their hearts. They are absolutely forbid all connection with the devoted Camanites; but in their other wars, if a man took a captive, and was plated with her beauty, he must not gratify his lawful luff, but might make her his lawful wife; yet not till after some time, when his thoughts might be more recollected, and the woman had, during a month, gone through the process here enjoined, of shaving her head, and paring her nails, which might be ordained, 1. As a means to wean the man from his incubation regard to her, in this disfigured dress; Or, 2. As an influence of her renunciation of her former idolatry, and as a lustration on her becoming a prostrate; Or, 3. As a token of mourning for her friends, from whom she was separated, as if they had been dead. Note, (1.) Sudden paffions must be restrained, till grace is given for reflection. (2.) What we love inconsistently, we should seek to wean our affections from. (3.) Before we take a partner for life, it is of infinite moment that we agree in religion. (4.) We are bound to show indulgence to the sorrow which flow from natural affection. If upon second thoughts before marriage, he saw the matter in a different light, or after marriage disliked her, then she must have her liberty, and must not be told as a bond-woman; this would be a compensation for the disappointment she received, or the injury sustained. Note, (1.) We cannot be too careful what engagements we form, half our honour and conscience should afterwards be wounded by our rashness. (2.) They are entitled to every possible satisfaction who, though found as unfit for our choice on reflection as this captive, have reason to upbraid us for their disappointment. 2 Gen. 1. 33. 1. 2 Chron. 1. 3. 34. See 1 Chron. 1. 1. Hab. The is found with him. 15. ¶ If a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the first-born son be her that was hated: 16. Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved, first-born, before the son of the hated, which is indeed the first-born: 17. But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the first-born, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength, the right of the first-born is his.

Deuteronomy 21:15-17

The stepping aside from the strait path in one instance, usually endangers us to go on increasing the evil. Thus the man who to gratify his lufta, took two wives, was in danger of shewing fœtid and unjust partiality to the children, according to his love to the mother. God therefore provides, that the eldest, though the son of the best beloved, or perhaps disliked, shall have his double portion of the inheritance. Note, Though the distinctions God makes by his grace, may render one child really more amiable to us than another, we are not therefore to invert the order of nature, in the distribution of our estates, but correspond with the will of providence, and let the eldest puffish the double portion. 18. ¶ 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 be taken unto them: 19. Then 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: 20. And they shall lay unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die; so shalt thou put evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. 22. ¶ And 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: 23. ¶ His 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 occurred of God) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 21:18-23

God had provided before against the partiality of parents. Though the son was unamissible in his temper, or weak in his capacity, he must not fare the worse: but here, 1. Their authority is to be maintained against the undueful and disobedient. In this case, if he slighted their advice, despised their authority, and squandered their influence in rations living, in gluttony and drunkenness, then, on complaint from his parents, he was convicted and stoned to death: an awful warning to rebellious children, and a powerful means of supporting parental authority, and suppressing in families the spirit of disobedience. Note, (1.) No heavier grief can lie upon a parent than to behold a debauched and abandoned son. (2.) Drunkenness is the door that leads to every abomination. (3.) They who give themselves up to their luds, justly forfeit the love of their dearest relations, and will find them in the day of judgment their accusers. (4.) The undueful son that will not amend under reproof, however now no longer subject to this judgment, will find a heavier in store for him in the day of God. 2. God commands the bodies of malefactor who had been put to death, and hung up for the terror of others, not to be left on the tree after sun-set. This punishment conveyed the strongest tokens of the wrath and curse of God against them: but that the land may not be defiled by a dead body, it is to be laid in the grave before night. Thus when Jesus suffered the wrath of God, his corpse was laid in the grave before evening; and in the land was by the malefactor’s death and burial delivered from defilement, so Christ has buried all our sins in his grave, and purified his church from every spot of iniquity.