Deuteronomy 21:1-23

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Care had been taken by some preceding laws for the vigorous and effectual persecution of a wilful murderer (Deut. 19:11-13), the putting of whom to death was the putting away of the guilt of blood from the land; but if this could not be done, the murderer not being discovered, they must not think that the land was in no danger of contracting any pollution because it was not through any neglect of theirs that the murderer was unpunished; no, a great solemnity is here provided for the putting... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:10-14

By this law a soldier is allowed to marry his captive if he pleased. For the hardness of their hearts Moses gave them this permission, lest, if they had not had liberty given them to marry such, they should have taken liberty to defile themselves with them, and by such wickedness the camp would have been troubled. The man is supposed to have a wife already, and to take this wife for a secondary wife, as the Jews called them. This indulgence of men's inordinate desires, in which their hearts... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:15-17

This law restrains men from disinheriting their eldest sons out of mere caprice, and without just provocation. I. The case here put (Deut. 21:15) is very instructive. 1. It shows the great mischief of having more wives than one, which the law of Moses did not restrain, probably in hopes that men's own experience of the great inconvenience of it in families would at last put an end to it and make them a law to themselves. Observe the supposition here: If a man have two wives, it is a thousand... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:18-23

Here is, I. A law for the punishing of a rebellious son. Having in the former law provided that parents should not deprive their children of their right, it was fit that it should next be provided that children withdraw not the honour and duty which are owing to their parents, for there is no partiality in the divine law. Observe, 1. How the criminal is here described. He is a stubborn and rebellious son, Deut. 21:18. No child was to fare the worse for the weakness of his capacity, the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:1

If one be found slain ,.... After public war with an enemy, Moses proceeds to speak of a private quarrel and fight of one man with another, in which one is slain, as Aben Ezra observes: in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it ; where murders might be committed more secretly, and remain undiscovered, when they came to live in separate cities, towns, and villages, with fields adjacent to them, than now encamped together: lying in the field ; where the quarrel... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:2

Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth ,.... From the city or cities near to which the murder was committed, to make inquiry about it, and expiation for it; so Aben Ezra interprets it of the elders of the cities near, but others understand it of the elders of the great sanhedrim at Jerusalem; so the Targum of Jonathan,"then shall go out from the great sanhedrim two of thy wise men, and three of thy judges;'and more expressly the Misnah F12 Sotah, c. 9. sect. 1. ,"three go out... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:3

And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man ,.... And so suspected, as the Targum of Jonathan, of the murder; or the murderer is in it, or however belonged to it: even the elders of the city shall take an heifer ; of a year old, as the same Targum, and so Jarchi; and in this the Jewish writers agree, that it must be a year old, but not two; though heifers of three years old were sometimes used in sacrifice, Genesis 15:9 a type of Christ, in his strength,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:4

The elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley ,.... Cities being generally built on hills, and so had adjacent valleys, to which there was a descent; but here a rough valley, or the rougher part of it, was selected for this purpose. As a valley is low, and this a rough one, it may be an emblem of Christ's being brought into this lower world, from heaven to earth, to do the will of his Father, which was to work out the salvation of his people; and of his coming into... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:5

And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near ,.... Who were clearly of the tribe of Levi, as Aben Ezra notes; about whom there could be no dispute; for it seems there sometimes were persons in that office, of whom there was some doubt at least whether they were of that tribe; these seem to be such that belonged to the court of judicature at Jerusalem; see Deuteronomy 17:9 , who were to be present at this solemnity, to direct in the performance of it, and to judge and determine in any... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 21:6

And all the elders of that city that are next unto the slain man ,.... The whole court of judicature belonging to it, all the magistracy of it; even though there were an hundred of them, Maimonides F24 Hilchot Rotzeach, c. 9. sect. 3. says: shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley : in token of their innocence, and this they did not only for themselves, but for the whole city, being the representatives of it; see Psalm 26:6 . Some think that this is a... read more

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