Deuteronomy 20-21

CHAPTER 20:
         Verses 1-9: In a theocratically governed nation such as Israel, it makes sense that the priest (presumably the high priest) would be the one to exhort and encourage the people before they went out to war against their enemies. Moses reminds the nation, first of all, that they are not to fear their enemy because of the number of their armies or their horses and chariots. (v.1) (Psalm 20:7, Isaiah 31:1) This was the mistake of the first generation that came out of Egypt when they received the report of the twelve spies. The priest is to remind the people that God is on their side and He goes with them in battle to give His chosen people the victory. (v.3) (Deuteronomy 1:30, 3:22, Joshua 23:10)
            The other point of these first four verses is that war is not just a military matter, but a religious one as well. The physical presence of the priest is to remind the people that God has given His blessing for the upcoming battle, and they are to fight in His name. As with all else in this life, there is a time for war as well as a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:3)
            The point of verses 5-8 is that God cares more for His chosen people than simply conquering their enemies. Any soldier that has not experienced marriage, or building a new home, or planting a vineyard – those rare milestones in the life of the people of the ANE – was granted leave from the battle to go do those things and enjoy life for a little while. Furthermore, any soldier that was too afraid of the battle, even after the priest’s exhortations to the whole army, is also allowed to go back home, lest his fear cause his fellow soldiers to also lose heart. (v.8) This is an odd allowance by God and seems contradictory, at first, to everything Moses has been saying up to this point about having faith in conquering the promised land.
            But the same command was also given to Gideon (Judges 7:3), and we know from that story that God needed to whittle Gideon’s army down to a size whereby the Israelites would not be able to claim a victory that rightfully belonged to the LORD. So perhaps the same principle is in view here.
 
            Verses 10-18: Moses now addresses the subject of conquering cities and people that are outside the border of the promised land. The Israelites are to always seek peace first with those other nations and people. (v.10) (2 Samuel 10:19) If the inhabitants of a city agree to surrender and become tributaries, or servants, then that is well and good. (v.11) But if they refuse and put up a fight, then Israel is lay siege to that city until it is conquered, and then all the men are to be slain. (v.12-13) The women, children, livestock, and all other wealth and goods may be taken as spoils of war by Israel. (v.14) (Joshua 8:2, 1 Samuel 14:30) Verse 15 makes it clear that Moses is referring to other cities and nations that are outside the promised land, perhaps even great distances from it, because in verses 16-18 he reiterates the Lord’s original command regarding the heathen nations and people that currently inhabit Canaan. (Exodus 23:31, Numbers 21:2-3, Deuteronomy 7:1, Joshua 11:14) The Israelites are to slay everyone – including the women and children – so as to prevent any of them from corrupting Israel by turning them away from God to idolatry and other wickedness. (Exodus 34:12, Deuteronomy 7:4, 12:30, 18:9)
            The assumption here is that by utterly destroying the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and the Jebusites (v.17) – as well as all the other nations currently occupying the promised land – Israel is eliminating all sources of temptation to turn away from God. (v.18) That whole process of conquering and settling the promised land would allow them to emerge a much stronger nation, spiritually speaking, and, thus, they would not be so tempted when it comes time to either make peace with or conquer the other nations outside the promised land. As we well know from the later books of the OT, Israel failed in that first objective, and that’s the reason she fell into apostasy and came under judgment from God for her disobedience. (Exodus 23:33, 2 Kings 21:3, Psalm 106:34)
 
            Verses 19-20: Almost as a footnote, Moses commands the people to not cut down any fruit-bearing trees that are in the fields surrounding any city to which they are laying siege. (v.19) The reason for this is because Israel’s army would need those trees and their food to sustain them during a lengthy military campaign. However, any other trees which do not naturally bear fruit are acceptable to chop down in order to provide fuel for fire or raw materials for weapons during the war against a city and its inhabitants. (v.20) Biblical commentaries suggest that this command is also a reference to God expecting His chosen people to have respect for the land itself. In this time period in the ANE, it was common for opposing armies to lay waste to any land surrounding a city against which they were laying siege. Moses is telling the Israelites to not use the same tactic, but instead have respect for the land and use its food and other resources to their advantage in the war with her enemies.

CHAPTER 21:
             Verses 1-9: Moses gives some more case law regarding the sixth commandment. If a body is discovered in an open field and the identity of the murderer is unknown, then the elders and judges of Israel are to be summoned. (v.1-2) They are to measure the distance from the body to the nearest city, and the elders and priests of that city are to take over the case. The elders are bring a young, unbroken heifer, meaning a calf that has never worn a yoke, to any valley where there is running water. (v.3-4) The elders are to kill the heifer by beheading it (v.4) and then summon the priests of Levi.
            Both the priests and the elders are to wash their hands over the heifer and publicly announce, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, O LORD, unto Thy people Israel, whom Thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto Thy people of Israel’s charge.” (v.7-8) (Psalm 19:12, 26:6, Matthew 27:24) What this means is that they are stating, for the record, that no one witnessed the murder, and they are asking God to forgive His people of any charge against them for the shedding of the blood of the victim upon the land. By performing this ritual, the defilement of innocent blood will be forgiven them (v.8) and the bloodguilt removed from the nation. (v.9) (Deuteronomy 19:13)
            It’s important to note that this ritual is not a blood sacrifice as those described earlier in Exodus and Leviticus. The blood of the heifer is not poured out, nor is there an altar built upon which to sacrifice it. Instead, the breaking of the animal’s neck signifies that a capital crime had taken place, and the murderer – whomever that might be – is guilty of death. It’s also important to note how strictly and reverently God expects His chosen people to view the holiness of the promised land. God has declared this land holy, for He is to dwell there among His chosen people, and He has already commanded them not to defile the land for that very reason. (Exodus 29:45-46, Numbers 35:34) Hence the necessity for the ritual described here.
 
            Verses 10-14: Moses now circles back to the topic addressed in the previous chapter about Israel making war against the other nations outside the promised land. Since God will allow them to take captive the women and children of the cities that they conquer, the situation might arise wherein an Israelite soldier will find one of the captive women desirable and wish to marry her. (v.10-11) God will allow this, but only after the following ritual is observed: 1) the woman is to shave her head completely and trim her fingernails; 2) she is to mourn the death of her parents for thirty days. (v.12-13) After this, the Israelite man is free to marry her. But if, for whatever reason, he no longer finds her desirable after the month of mourning, she is released and free to go wherever she wishes. (v.14) The man is forbidden from selling her as a slave because of the fact that she has already been humiliated by performing the first requirement as described in verse 12.
          There’s two important things to note here:
          1) As I mentioned already, the captive women that Moses is speaking of here are from the nations outside the promised land, as discussed in the previous chapter. The logical presumption here is that Israel has already slain all the peoples of the nations within the promised land. Also, keep in mind that God has expressly forbidden the Israelites to intermarry with any of the daughters of the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 7:3), so that’s another reason we can logically conclude that the scenario described here involves captives from other nations outside Canaan.
            2) This scenario also presumes that some of the captives are willing to convert to the beliefs of Israel and associate themselves with the God of the Israelites. A great example of this is Rahab. (Joshua 6:25) Not only that, but God has already mentioned within His law numerous times the strangers that might be dwelling among His people, and that they are allowed to partake of the various sacrifices and annual feasts as long as they accept the God of Israel and agree to abide by His law. The Israelites are also commanded numerous times to care for the strangers, to see to their needs if they are poor and destitute. Therefore, it is logical to presume that some of the women taken captive as spoils of war could be found attractive enough for marriage by the Israelite soldiers once those women expressed a desire to believe in the God of Israel and obey His law.
            The exact purpose of the ritual that Moses describes in verses 12-13 is not explained in the text. The Moody Bible Commentary has this to say: “Some think that if the only reason the woman was desirable in the first place was that she was physically beautiful, the removal of adornments would mean she would be less attractive. The most likely reason is that these acts demonstrate that she needed to remove anything pertaining to her former life and embrace life within the Israelite community. This would also remind her husband that he is no longer to treat her as an alien but as a wife.” Also, the fact that the law requires the Israelite man to let her go free if he no longer wishes to marry her remains consistent with the other commands from God in the law regarding foreigners living among the Israelites, as I mentioned earlier. They too, have personal rights, and are to be treated humanely by God’s chosen people. This is a far cry from the way the heathen nations of the ANE treated prisoners of war during this time period.
 
            Verses 15-17: While Genesis 2:22-24 clearly states God’s standard for marriage and holy sexuality, and while this is also clearly reinforced throughout scripture in both the old and new testaments, it’s also equally clear – both in scripture and in historical records of the ANE – that polygamy was commonly practiced, even among God’s chosen people. And just because God seems to bless men which practiced this – i.e. Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon – does not mean that He approves or sanctions it. A better view of polygamy in the Bible is that God blesses the Israelites in spite of their practice of this sin, just as He does with the common practice of divorce. Scripture also makes clear that polygamy always has disastrous consequences for all those involved, especially in the examples of David and Solomon.
           We must always be careful when studying the Bible that we do not equate the written record of something – such as David’s and Solomon’s many wives – with God’s approval of said thing. Even a cursory study of men like David and Solomon will reveal to any true Christian that God clearly allowed the consequences of that sin to be manifested in the lives of those men. Even the fact that the thirteen tribes of Israel were formed from the sons of Jacob’s polygamous marriages to Rachel and Leah should not be viewed by us as God approving of that dual marriage.
            Here in Deuteronomy 21, Moses adds to the case law regarding inheritance when there is more than one firstborn son in a polygamous marriage. (Genesis 29:33)  If a man has two wives, and one is more favored - or beloved - than the other, and the one that is less favored - or hated - gives birth to a son before the other wife, then that firstborn receives the double portion of the man’s inheritance. He is not to give the double portion to the firstborn of the more beloved wife if her son was born second. In other words, the line of inheritance is to remain intact, regardless of which wife bore the firstborn son.
 
          Verses 18-21: This passage refers to the fifth commandment. Any son that is openly rebellious and publicly defies his parents by refusing to submit to their authority and obey them, and who has not responded to all attempts by his parents to properly discipline him, is to be brought before the elders of the city for judgment. The sentence is death by stoning, and this is to be carried out by all the men of the city. The reason for such a harsh punishment is stated in verse 21: “…so shalt thou put evil away from among you…”. (Deuteronomy 13:5, 19:19-20, 22:21, 24)
          The fifth commandment is the only one with a promise attached to it, and the scenario that Moses lays out for the people in these verses reinforces that promise. If one honors and obeys one’s parents, then he/she shall live a long and prosperous life. But God takes a dim view of pride and rebellion, and all those who do not repent of those sins and do not hearken unto the chastening of their parents will live a very short life.
 
             Verses 22-23: These final two verses give some direction for what should be done with the bodies of those who are executed because of a capital offense. As has already been made clear from this chapter and other passages in the earlier books of the Pentateuch, the standard method of public execution is stoning, not hanging. However, as was typical of the societies of the ANE in this time period, the bodies of the slain were often hung in public view as a way of warning others of the consequences of breaking the law.
             What Moses is giving here is direction regarding the treatment of those bodies after death. Put simply, they were not to remain hung on the tree after sundown. The Moody Bible Commentary puts it this way: “The executed criminal was considered cursed by God, not because he was hung on a tree but because of the behavior that brought about his punishment. While there is a clear object lesson in these situations to warn people about the consequences of their behavior, the body of the criminal was still to be treated in such a way that Israelites did not defile their land.” (Leviticus 18:25, Numbers 35:34, Joshua 8:29, 10:26-27, John 19:31)