1_When thou goest out to battle. _This law also, which concerns their political government, is a Supplement to the First Commandment, enacting that they should carry on their wars under the auspices of God, and, trusting in His help, should follow Him as their leader. For it behoved them to give thi... [ Continue Reading ]
2_And it shall be, when ye are come nigh. _God commits the duty of exhortation to the priests, when the time of the conflict shall have arrived. But we gather from the expressions used that this passage is supplementary to the First Commandment, for it contains no more than that the priest should en... [ Continue Reading ]
5._And the officers shall speak unto the people_. I have added the commencement, “_quum bellandum erit_, ” (when there shall be war,) that my readers may know what is the subject here discussed; for although the instruction given may seem somewhat remote from the prohibition of theft, still it accor... [ Continue Reading ]
10._When thou goest forth to war_. He now teaches that, even in lawful wars, cruelty is to be repressed, and bloodshed to be abstained from as much as possible. He therefore commands that, when they shall have come to take a city, they should first of all exhort its inhabitants to obtain peace by ca... [ Continue Reading ]
12._And if he will make no peace_. The permission here given seems to confer too great a license; for, since heathen writers (46) command even the conquered to be spared, and enjoin that those should be admitted to mercy who lay down their arms, and cast themselves on the good faith of the General,... [ Continue Reading ]
15._Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities_. An exception is introduced, that the Jews should not apply the common laws of war to the Canaanitish nations, with respect to whose extermination the sentence had passed. (48) For God had not only armed the Jews to _carry _on war with them, but had appoin... [ Continue Reading ]
19._When thou shalt besiege a city a long time_. I have not hesitated to annex this precept to the Eighth Commandment, for when God lays a restraint on the liberty of inflicting injuries in the very heat of war, with respect to felling trees, much more did He desire His people to abstain from all mi... [ Continue Reading ]