Deuteronomy 20 - Introduction

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER TWENTY

Directions concerning campaigns, 1. The priest shall encourage the people with the assurance that God will accompany and fight for them, 2-4. The officers shall dismiss from the army all who had just built a new house, but had not dedicated it, 5. All who had planted a vineyard, but had not eaten of its fruits, 6. All who had betrothed a wife, but had not brought her home, 7. And all who were timid and faint-hearted, 8. The commanders to be chosen after the timid, &c., had retired, 9. No city to be attacked till they had proclaimed conditions of peace to it, provided it be a city beyond the bounds of the seven Canaanitish nations; if it submitted, it was to become tributary; if not, it was to be beseiged, sacked, and all the males put to the sword; the women, children, and cattle to be taken as booty, 10-15. No such offers to be made to the cities of the Canaanites; of them nothing shall be preserved, and the reason, 16-18. In beseiging a city no trees to be cut down but those who do not bear fruit, 19, 20.

[See Deuteronomy 21:1-9 discussed in lesson fifteen (II, B, 3, f.)]

QUESTIONS, LESSON SIXTEEN (Deuteronomy 20:1-20, Deuteronomy 21:10-14, Deuteronomy 23:9-14)

1.

What function did the priest have who accompanied the army to the battlefield.

2.

Was there a clear line of demarcation between civil and religious laws under the Old Covenant?

3.

Can you recall the four classes of soldiers who could return home from the battlefield? (Finish before proceeding.)

4.

What reason is given for allowing the fearful and faint hearted to return home?

5.

Can you name two differences (related) between the way Israel's army should treat distant, as contrasted with Canaanite, cities.

6.

What kind of trees were not to be destroyed in battle?

7.

In this lesson, what was the soldier's reason for taking a foreign wife?

8.

What was required of her before the marriage was official?

9.

Discuss how Deuteronomy 21:10-14 uphold such a woman's dignity and honor.

10.

Upon what basis could her husband let her go?

11.

Why couldn-'t he sell her as a slave?

12.

What would Jesus have taught about such a marriage?