Deuteronomy 20:1-20 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 1-20

Deuteronomy 20. Laws to be Observed during War.— Peculiar to cf. Deuteronomy 21:10-2 Chronicles : (which some attach immediately to ch. 20) and Deuteronomy 23:9-2 Chronicles :, Deuteronomy 24:5 (see remarks prefixed to Deuteronomy 19:14 ff.). The general effect of these laws is to soften the barbarities of war, though in some respects ( Deuteronomy 20:13-Job :) they perpetuate its grossest cruelties. What were the wars which suggested these regulations?

Deuteronomy 20:1 . horses, and Chariots: Deuteronomy 17:16. The Assyrians and Egyptians were rich in these, and Israel had great fear of them ( Joshua 17:16, Judges 1:19). Palestine was unsuitable for both on account of its mountains; Israel is to trust in Yahweh ( Hosea 14:3, Isaiah 2:7; Isaiah 31:1, Psalms 20:7; Psalms 33:16 f; Psalms 147:10).

Deuteronomy 20:2 . the priest: these wars were, as those of early Islam, religious ones; cf. the phrase “ to consecrate a war” ( Micah 3:5). i.e. to begin it with sacrifice (pp. 99, 114). Why is the king not mentioned? Had the monarchy ceased, this war code being then, like Ezekiel 40-48, an ideal programme?

Deuteronomy 20:5-1 Samuel : . Men to be excused from the war.

Deuteronomy 20:10-Job : reminds one of the early wars of Islam.

Deuteronomy 20:17 . utterly destroy: Deuteronomy 2:34 *. This drastic treatment is reserved for the Canaanites alone.

Deuteronomy 20:19 . This law is infringed in 2 Kings 3:19; 2 Kings 3:25.

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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