10 "When you go out to battle against your enemies , and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive , 11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman , and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself, 12 then you shall bring her home to your house , and she shall shave her head and trim her nails . 13 "She shall also remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house , and mourn her father and mother a full month ; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife . 14 "It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go wherever she wishes ; but you shall certainly not sell her for money , you shall not mistreat her, because e you have humbled her.
15 "If a man has two wives , the one loved and the other unloved , and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons , if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved , 16 then it shall be in the day he wills what he has to his sons , he cannot e make the son of the loved the firstborn before e the son of the unloved , who is the firstborn . 17 "But he shall acknowledge the firstborn , the son of the unloved , by giving him a double portion of all that he has , for he is the beginning of his strength ; to him belongs the right of the firstborn .
18 "If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey e his father or his mother , and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, 19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown . 20 "They shall say to the elders of his city , 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious , he will not obey e us, he is a glutton and a drunkard .' 21 " Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death ; so you shall remove the evil from your midst , and all Israel will hear of it and fear . 22 "If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death , and you hang him on a tree , 23 his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree , but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God ), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:10-23
Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:10-14
(Read Deuteronomy 21:10-14)
By this law a soldier was allowed to marry his captive, if he pleased. This might take place upon some occasions; but the law does not show any approval of it. It also intimates how binding the laws of justice and honour are in marriage; which is a sacred engagement.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:15-17
(Read Deuteronomy 21:15-17)
This law restrains men from disinheriting their eldest sons without just cause. The principle in this case as to children, is still binding to parents; they must give children their right without partiality.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:18-21
(Read Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
Observe how the criminal is here described. He is a stubborn and rebellious son. No child was to fare the worse for weakness of capacity, slowness, or dulness, but for wilfulness and obstinacy. Nothing draws men into all manner of wickedness, and hardens them in it more certainly and fatally, than drunkenness. When men take to drinking, they forget the law of honouring parents. His own father and mother must complain of him to the elders of the city. Children who forget their duty, must thank themselves, and not blame their parents, if they are regarded with less and less affection. He must be publicly stoned to death by the men of his city. Disobedience to a parent's authority must be very evil, when such a punishment was ordered; nor is it less provoking to God now, though it escapes punishment in this world. But when young people early become slaves to sensual appetites, the heart soon grows hard, and the conscience callous; and we can expect nothing but rebellion and destruction.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:22-23
(Read Deuteronomy 21:22-23)
By the law of Moses, the touch of a dead body was defiling, therefore dead bodies must not be left hanging, as that would defile the land. There is one reason here which has reference to Christ; "He that is hanged is accursed of God;" that is, it is the highest degree of disgrace and reproach. Those who see a man thus hanging between heaven and earth, will conclude him abandoned of both, and unworthy of either. Moses, by the Spirit, uses this phrase of being accursed of God, when he means no more than being treated most disgracefully, that it might afterward be applied to the death of Christ, and might show that in it he underwent the curse of the law for us; which proves his love, and encourages to faith in him.