Deuteronomy 21:12

_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,_ When thou goest forth to war ... and seest among the captives a beautiful woman (cf. Numbers 31:18). 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 of her master being captivated by her beauty and contemplating 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 ci

10-14 By this law a soldier was allowed to marry his captive, if he pleased. This might take place upon some occasions; but the law does not show any approval of it. It also intimates how binding the laws of justice and honour are in marriage; which is a sacred engagement....

Verse Deuteronomy 21:12. _SHE SHALL SHAVE HER HEAD_] This was in token of her renouncing her religion, and becoming a proselyte to that of the Jews. This is still a custom in the East; when a Christian turns Mohammedan his head is shaven, and he is carried through the city crying, [Arabic] _la alahila allah we Mohammed resooli Allah_; "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." _PARE HER NAILS_] ועשתה את צפרניה _veasethah eth_ _tsipporneyha_, "she shall make her nails." Now whether this signifies _paring_ or letting them _grow_, is greatly doubted among learned men. Possibly it means neither, but _colouring_ the nails, staining them red with the _hennah_, which is much practised in India to the present day, and which was undoubtedly practised among the ancient Egyptians, as is evident from

The shaving the head (a customary sign of purification, Leviticus 14:8; Numbers 8:7), and the putting away “the garment of her captivity,” were designed to signify the translation of the woman from the state of a pagan and a slave to that of a wife among the covenant-people. Consistency required that she should “pare” (dress, compare 2 Samuel 19:24), not “suffer to grow,” her nails; and thus, so far as possible, lay aside everything belonging to her condition as an alien....

EXPOSITION EXPIATION OF UNCERTAIN MURDER. TREATMENT OF A CAPTIVE TAKEN TO WIFE. RIGHTS OF THE FIRSTBORN. A REBELLIOUS, REFRACTORY SON TO BE JUDGED AND PUNISHED. A MALEFACTOR WHO HAS BEEN HANGED TO BE BURIED ERE NIGHTFALL. One general idea, viz. the sacredness of human life and of personal rights, connects the laws in this chapter together, as well as connects them with the laws in the two preceding chapters....

THEN THOU SHALT BRING HER HOME TO THINE HOUSE,.... In order to make her his wife, after some things were done here directed to; for this is not to be understood of his taking her home with a view to defile her, as Maimonides e interprets it; who observes, that when a man's lust so rages that he cannot subdue it, yet he ought not publicly to satisfy his lust, but to have the woman into a private and secret place, as it is said, THOU SHALT BRING HER INTO THE MIDST OF THINE HOUSE; nor was he permitted to lie with her in the camp, nor was it lawful for him to defile her a second time, until her mourning was at an end; though elsewhere f he gives a different sense of this passage, and supposes the man to have lain with the captive woman, before the introduction of her into his house; for it is a notion that prevails with the Jewish writers, that an Israelitish soldier might lie once with an...

17. THE EXPIATION OF AN UNCERTAIN MURDER AND VARIOUS INSTRUCTIONS CHAPTER 21 _ 1. The expiation of an unknown murder (Deuteronomy 21:1)_ 2. Concerning a wife, who had been a prisoner of war (Deuteronomy 21:10) 3. The right of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 21:15) 4. The punishment of a rebellious son (Deuteronomy 21:18) 5. The burial of one who hanged on a tree (Deuteronomy 21:22) The expiation of an unknown murder seems to find an interesting applicati

Another regulation (only here) pertaining to war (see ch. 20, which it should perhaps immediately follow). It is another example of D's humanitarianism (Deuteronomy 15:12 *). The relief claimed for the captive woman could not apply to a Canaanitish woman, as no Israelite was allowed to marry such a woman (Deuteronomy 7:3); besides, when conquered, the entire Canaanite foe (including women and children), was to be utterly destroyed (Deuteronomy 20:16). DEUTERONOMY 21:12. Shaving the head (Deuteronomy 14:1 *

Of Marriage with a Captive of War If a woman taken in war is desired for a wife (Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 21:12 f.). If her husband's love for her fades he may let her go out free (Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 7:3, forbidding marriage

_VER._ 12. _SHE SHALL SHAVE HER HEAD, AND PARE HER NAILS_— _Shaving the head_ was one of the external signs of mourning. See Leviticus 19:27; Leviticus 21:15. St. Jerome, and others, however, understand this shaving as a species of purification, and an abjuration of paganism. _Paring the nails_ seems to have been also done in mourning. In the original it is, _shall make her nails,_ which some understand of _letting them grow;_ and this seems to us more suitable to a state of mourning; but the fashion of countries, as Calmet has well observed, must entirely determine; for we are told, that in some parts of America the women esteem it a beauty to have long nails; so that among them to pare the nails would be a sign of mourning; and this too is the case among the Chinese