Deuteronomy 21:1-23
1 If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him:
2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain:
3 And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke;
4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley:
5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their worda shall every controversy and every stroke be tried:
6 And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley:
7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
8 Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.
9 So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.
10 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,
11 And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;
12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pareb her nails;
13 And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine 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.
14 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 make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.
15 If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:
16 Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn:
17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;
20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.
21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursedc of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
Deuteronomy 21:4. A rough valley. The guilt being transferred to the heifer, the slaying it in a cultivated field would have polluted the ground. The Hebrew altar allowed of no victim to be offered there, when the law sentenced it to die. How blasphemous then is the Irish priest, who hears a confession of murder, and for five shillings conceals the sin!
Deuteronomy 21:6. All the elders shall wash their hands, and say, Our hands have not shed this blood. The custom of ablution after the shedding of blood seems to have been universal in former ages. See on Genesis 31:19. If a heathen had slain a robber, he purified himself before he entered a temple.
Deuteronomy 21:11. Seest among the captives a beautiful woman that thou wouldst have for a wife. Moses did not allow her to be touched, without first being lawfully married at a fixed time: and though he allowed of divorce, and of having two wives, Deuteronomy 21:15, it was merely Lex custorum, the law of customs, and nowhere a divine injunction. Divorces, except for adultery, proceeded from “the hardness of their hearts.”
Deuteronomy 21:21. All the men of the city shall stone him. Thousands of parents, yea cities and nations, would have survived, if guilty sons, committing crimes worthy of death, had been stoned. The rape of Helen, as that of the Levite's concubine, and other crimes, which slowly murder parents, ought in common justice to have been punished with death. It proved very tragic when Eli spared his sons, and David his Amnon.
REFLECTIONS.
Israel being in covenant with God, no crimes could remain unpurged. The sins of the nation were removed evening and morning by the oblation of a lamb, whose body was, in fact, burning night and day upon the altar. The sin also of every secret murder must be purged with the blood of a heifer, a sacrifice adequate to purge the sins of the whole nation. Washing of hands, protestations of innocence, and prayers for pardon must be joined with sacrifice. How precious in the eyes of the Lord is the life of man; and how great the crime of slaying a man, made in the image of God! How happy also is that nation who have magistrates and ministers whose pious care it is to purge the people of crimes, and to turn away the wrath of heaven from their country. The allowance of a full month for a woman taken in war, to mourn for the dead, and purify herself before marriage, teaches us that all persons in trouble ought to be commiserated and indulged; and that the lawless lusts of military triumph are an abomination in the sight of the Lord. Consequently that general who does not deter his men from those crimes, by executing the ringleaders, throws the whole guilt on himself, and on his country. Injustice once sanctioned by the ministers of justice, becomes the last of crimes.
The punishment here denounced against a prodigal, whose vices rendered him insupportable to his own parents, however extraordinary and severe, is highly equitable. If the tender feelings of humanity revolt at the sentence; let our more sober judgment say, what is due to a youth who daily robs his parents, riots in taverns, blasphemes the name of God, and uses violence in the commission of crimes. Shall Eli merely say, Nay, my sons, this is no good report that I hear of you, till the old man loses his mitre, his life, by sparing his guilty sons; and till Israel loses the ark? Rather let us say with Solomon, Whoso curseth father or mother, his light shall go out in obscurity, and the young eagles of the valley shall pick out his eyes. Surely this united kingdom, as well as Israel, is in danger from a multitude of profligate youths.