Deuteronomy 21:10

RIGHTS OF CAPTIVE TAKEN AS WIFE

"When thou goest forth to battle against thine enemies, and Jehovah thy God delivereth them into thy hands, and thou carriest them away captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and thou hast a desire unto her, and wouldest take her unto thee to wife; then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thy house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not deal with her as a slave, because thou hast humbled her."

"The main principle here is that a man's authority did not extend to the right of reducing his wife to a slave,"[17] even though the wife might have been, at one time, a slave. The mention of divorce here is not given as a sanction for it but is mentioned incidentally. All polygamous marriages in the O.T. are presented in such a manner as to expose them as disharmonious and unsatisfactory.

Watts thought this paragraph should have been included in Deuteronomy 20 as part of the instructions on war;[18] but Keil's words on this in the chapter introduction are far preferable. Wright called the provisions here examples, "of thoughtful forbearance and consideration,"[19] not often associated with thoughts of war. The superiority of the true religion as contrasted with the ordinary behavior of people shines in such a passage as this.

Regarding the foolishness of any man who would choose a companion for life on the mere OUTWARD appearance of a woman, we have this from Oberst:

"We would seriously question a man's wisdom who would choose a life's partner on such a superficial basis, with little or no chance to consider whether she was beautiful in character. Let one so tempted heed the warning of the Bible: "Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids" (Proverbs 6:25). Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain. But a woman that feareth Jehovah, she shall be praised" (Proverbs 31:20).[20]

In this same connection, a Jewish writer, seeking to explain WHY this marriage to a beautiful foreign captive should appear in the same chapter with the directions for putting to death a "refractory and rebellious son," stated that, a man who would be so taken by a woman's PHYSICAL BEAUTY that he would marry her in spite of her heathen origin is obviously one who attaches more importance to superficial glamour than to inner virtue, and that, "It is only natural that a man with such an attitude should beget a son who is "refractory and rebellious."[21]

Just here it is wise to remember that the prohibition against the Israelites intermarrying with the Canaanites did not extend to intermarriage with other foreign peoples; therefore, the case under discussion here related to a captive taken in "a distant city." McGarvey supposed in this connection that David's intermarriage with certain foreign women did not violate God's law, but that Solomon's did.[22] But David's also did in the case of Bathsheba.

Jamieson thought that a double purpose was served by the ban against marrying a captive woman until her month for mourning had been fulfilled. He noted that the shaving of the head was a sign of grief and mourning and that the putting away of the garments of her captivity had the utility of taking away any glamour the woman might have had due to her dress, and that in such a changed state the passions of her would-be-husband might be subdued. Part of this was based on the custom of women about to be captured. "They arrayed themselves in the most gorgeous garments they possessed in order to be more attractive to their captors."[23] Whatever the full purpose of this legislation, "The humanitarian tone of it is unique in the ancient world."[24]