Deuteronomy 21

Deuteronomy 21:1 “If a murder victim is found lying in a field in the land Yahveh your God is giving you to take possession of, and it is not known who killed him,

Deuteronomy 21:2 your elders and judges are to come out and measure the distance from the victim to the nearby cities.

Deuteronomy 21:3 The elders of the city nearest to the victim are to get a young cow that has not been yoked or used for work.

Deuteronomy 21:4 The elders of that city will bring the cow down to a continually flowing stream, to a place not tilled or planted, and they will break its neck there by the stream.

Deuteronomy 21:5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, will come forward, because Yahveh your God has chosen them to minister to him and pronounce empowerments in his name, and they are to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

Deuteronomy 21:6 All the elders of the city nearest to the victim will wash their hands by the stream over the young cow whose neck has been broken.

Deuteronomy 21:7 They will answer, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood; our eyes did not see it.

Deuteronomy 21:8 Yahveh, absolve[1] the guilt of your people, Israel, whom you redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.’ Then, the responsibility for bloodshed will be absolved from them.

Deuteronomy 21:9 You must purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood because you will be doing what is right in Yahveh’s sight.

Deuteronomy 21:10 “When you go to war against your enemies and Yahveh your God hands them over to you and you take some of them prisoner, and

Deuteronomy 21:11 if you see a beautiful woman among the captives, desire her, and want to take her as your wife,

Deuteronomy 21:12 you are to bring her into your house. She is to shave her head, trim her nails,

Deuteronomy 21:13 remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a whole month. After that, you may have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.

Deuteronomy 21:14 But if you do not treasure her, you are to let her go as her personality prefers, and you must not sell her or treat her as merchandise because you have humiliated her.

Deuteronomy 21:15 “If a man has two wives, one cared about and the other not cared about, and both the cared about and the not cared about bear him sons, and if the wife not cared about has the firstborn son,

Deuteronomy 21:16 when that man gives what he has to his sons as an inheritance, he is not to show favoritism to the son of the wife cared about as his firstborn over the firstborn of the not cared about wife.

Deuteronomy 21:17 He must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the wife he did not care about, by giving him two shares of his estate because he is the first of his virility; he legally deserves the firstborn’s share.

Deuteronomy 21:18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother and doesn’t listen to them even after they discipline him,

Deuteronomy 21:19 his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown.

Deuteronomy 21:20 They will say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he doesn’t obey us. He’s a glutton and a drunkard.’

Deuteronomy 21:21 Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

Deuteronomy 21:22 “If anyone is found guilty of a failure deserving the death penalty and is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,

Deuteronomy 21:23 you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s affliction. You must not defile the land Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance.

[1]כָּפַר (piel) = absolve. Deuteronomy 21:8; 32:43.

Deuteronomy 21 quotes:

“A very suggestive and interesting passage of holy Scripture now lies open before us, and claims our attention. A sin is committed — a man is found slain in the land, but no one knows aught about it; no one can tell whether it is murder ov manslaughter, or who committed the deed. It lies entirely bej’ond the range of human knowledge ; and yet there it is — an undenialjle fact. Sin has been committed, and it lies as a stain on the Lord’s land, and man is wholly incompetent to deal with it.

What, then, is to be done ? The glory of God and the purity of His land must be maintained. He knows all about it, and He alone can deal with it; and truly His mode of dealing with it is full of most precious teaching.

First of all, tlie elders and judges appear on the scene. Tlie claims of truth and righteousness must be duly attended to ; justice and judgment must be perfectly maintained. This is a gieat cardinal truth, running all through the Word of God. Sin must be judged ere siiis can be forgiven or the sinner justified. Ere mercy’s heavenly voice can be beard, justice must be perfectly satisfied, the throne of God vindicated, and His name glorified. Grace must reign through I’ighteousness. Blessed be God that it is so ! Wiiat a glorious truth for all who have taken their true place as sinners ! God has been glorified as to the question of sin, and therefore He can, in perfect righteousness, pardon and justify the sinner.”

Mackintosh Charles Henry. Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy. Loizeaux Bros 1880. pp. 330-331.

“In the earlier legislation, distinctions have been made between manslaughter and murder, together with the manner of dealing with such crimes (17:8; 19:4–13). In this passage it is envisaged that a crime has taken place (presumably murder, though it could have been manslaughter), but the authorities do not know who was responsible for the crime. Because of the religious implications of murder, incurring guilt for the whole land, the matter could not simply be left (to use modern language) as an open file at the police headquarters. Some action had to be taken immediately, though the action described in these verses does not preclude the continuing investigation into the cause of the death by the officers of the law. Both the crime and the procedure involved have parallels in Near Eastern literature and legal texts,1 though at a number of points the Israelite practice is quite distinctive.”

Craigie, Peter C.. The Book of Deuteronomy (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament) (p. 278). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

Deuteronomy 21 links:

bypassing preferences
from captive to family
hand washing cow
in retrospect- removing the shame
staying compliant and connected
transvestites and mother bird theft
why he was taken down

The DEUTERONOMY shelf in Jeff’s library.

Deuteronomy 20

Deuteronomy 20:1 “When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, because Yahveh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

Deuteronomy 20:2 When you are about to engage in battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army.

Deuteronomy 20:3 He is to say to them: ‘Listen, Israel: Today you are about to engage in battle with your enemies. Do not be cowardly. Do not be afraid, alarmed, or terrified because of them.

Deuteronomy 20:4 You see, Yahveh, your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.’

Deuteronomy 20:5 “The officers are to address the army, and this is what you should say: ‘Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him leave and return home. Or else, he may die in battle, and another man dedicates it.

Deuteronomy 20:6 Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him leave and return home. Or else he may die in battle, and another man enjoys its fruit.

Deuteronomy 20:7 Has any man become engaged to a woman and not married her? Let him leave and return home. Otherwise, he may die in battle, and another man marries her.’

Deuteronomy 20:8 The officers will address the army again and say, ‘Is there any man who is afraid or cowardly? Let him leave and return home so that his brothers won’t lose heart as he did.’

Deuteronomy 20:9 When the officers have finished addressing the army, they will appoint military commanders to lead it.

Deuteronomy 20:10 “When you approach a city to fight against it, make an offer of peace.

Deuteronomy 20:11 If it answers your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you and serve you.

Deuteronomy 20:12 However, if it does not make peace with you but wages war against you, lay siege to it.

Deuteronomy 20:13 When Yahveh, your God, hands it over to you, strike down all its males with the sword.

Deuteronomy 20:14 But you may take the women, dependents, animals, and whatever else is in the city– all its spoil– as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that Yahveh, your God, has given you.

Deuteronomy 20:15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and are not among the cities of these nations.

Deuteronomy 20:16 However, you must not let any breathing[1] thing stay alive among the cities of these people Yahveh your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 20:17 You must destroy them — the Hethite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite – as Yahveh your God has commanded you,

Deuteronomy 20:18 so that they won’t teach you to do all the repulsive acts they do for their gods, and you fail Yahveh, your God.

Deuteronomy 20:19 “When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. Do not fell them. Are trees of the field human to come under siege by you?

Deuteronomy 20:20 But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce food. You may fell them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

[1]נְשָׁמָה

Deuteronomy 20 quotes:

“It was just as consistent with the character of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to fight against His enemies, as it is with tlie character of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to forgive them. And inasmuch as it is the revealed character of God that furnishes the model on which His people are to be formed — llie standard by which thej’ are to act, it was quite as consistent for Israel to cut their enemies in pieces as it is for us to love them, pray for them, and do them good.”

Mackintosh Charles Henry. Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy. Loizeaux Bros 1880. p. 316.

“When the Israelites engaged in battle, the greater numbers and superior military equipment (horses and chariots—the Israelite army would consist of infantrymen) of their enemies need cause them no anxiety. Israelite strength lay not in numbers, not in the superiority of their weapons, but in their God.3 The strength of their God was not simply a matter of faith, but a matter of experience; in the Exodus from Egypt, God (the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt) had proved his strength and prowess in war against the strongest enemy that Israel had known.”

Craigie, Peter C.. The Book of Deuteronomy (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament) (p. 271). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

Deuteronomy 20 links:

confidence instead of fear
destroying the defiled
first seek peace
God’s remedy for defilement
in retrospect- wise warfare
leaving the fruitful trees
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, June 10, 2021
pep talk 1
pep talk 2

The DEUTERONOMY shelf in Jeff’s library.

Deuteronomy 19

Deuteronomy 19:1 “When Yahveh your God eliminates the nations whose land he is giving you, so that you take possession from them and live in their cities and houses,

Deuteronomy 19:2 you are to separate three cities for yourselves within the land Yahveh your God is giving you to take possession of.

Deuteronomy 19:3 You are to determine the distances and divide the land Yahveh your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.

Deuteronomy 19:4 “Here is the instruction concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to stay alive, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him:

Deuteronomy 19:5 If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbor to fell timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may run away to one of these cities and stay alive.

Deuteronomy 19:6 Or else, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and slit his throat. Yet he did not legally deserve to die since he did not previously hate his neighbor.

Deuteronomy 19:7 This is why I am commanding you, and this is what I say: separate three cities for yourselves.

Deuteronomy 19:8 If Yahveh your God enlarges your territory as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised to provide them with –

Deuteronomy 19:9 if you watch every one of these commands I am commanding you today and follow them, loving Yahveh your God and walking in his ways at all times – you are to add three more cities to these three.

Deuteronomy 19:10 In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land Yahveh, your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 19:11 But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and runs away to one of these cities,

Deuteronomy 19:12 the elders of his city are to send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die.

Deuteronomy 19:13 Do not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.

Deuteronomy 19:14 “Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land Yahveh your God is giving you to take possession of.

Deuteronomy 19:15 “One witness cannot establish any violation or failure against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Deuteronomy 19:16 “If a malicious witness testifies against someone accusing him of a crime,

Deuteronomy 19:17 the two people in the dispute are to stand in the presence of Yahveh before the priests and judges in authority at that time.

Deuteronomy 19:18 The judges are to make a careful investigation and notice if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely testified against his brother,

Deuteronomy 19:19 you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you.

Deuteronomy 19:20 Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.

Deuteronomy 19:21 Do not show pity: throat for throat, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Deuteronomy 19 quotes:

“What a very striking combination of “goodness and severity” we observe in these few lines ! We have the “cnttini; off” of the nations of Canaan because of tlieir consummated wickedness, which had become positively’ unbearable ; and on the other hand, we have a most touching display of divine goodness in the provision made for the poor maiislavcr in the day of his deep distress, when flying for his life from the avenger of blood. The government and the goodness of God are, we need hardly say. bolli divinely perfect. There are cases in which (Toodness would be nothing but a toleration of sheer wickedness and open rebellion, which is utterly impossible uniler the government of God. If men imagine that because God is good the}- ma}- go on and sin with a high hand, they will sooner or later find out their woeful mistake.”

Mackintosh Charles Henry. Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy. Loizeaux Bros 1880. p. 303.

“You shall set aside for yourself three cities—bringing the total to six, including those to the east of the Jordan. In the midst of your land—the cities would be allocated on a geographical or regional basis, but not specifically in relation to tribal territory. The purpose of the distribution would be to provide places of refuge within easy access of all areas of Israel’s future land; to have allocated one city per tribe might have defeated the purpose of the cities, by making the law in relation to manslaughter and murder a matter of tribal justice and revenge.”

Craigie, Peter C.. The Book of Deuteronomy (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament) (p. 266). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

Deuteronomy 19 links:

closing the loophole
covenant abuse
handing over our hurts
in retrospect- taking advantage of grace
innocent blood
shame crimes
the price of refuge

The DEUTERONOMY shelf in Jeff’s library.

Deuteronomy 18

Deuteronomy 18:1 “The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, will have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They will eat Yahveh’s fire offerings;[1] that is their inheritance.

Deuteronomy 18:2 Although Levi has no inheritance among his brothers, Yahveh is his inheritance, as he promised him.

Deuteronomy 18:3 This is what the priests legally deserve from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether it is an ox, a sheep, or a goat; the priests are to be given the shoulder, jaws, and stomach.

Deuteronomy 18:4 You are to give him the first of your grain, new wine, and fresh oil, and the first sheared wool of your flock.

Deuteronomy 18:5 You see, Yahveh, your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and minister in his name from now on.

Deuteronomy 18:6 When a Levite leaves one of your towns in Israel where he was a guest[2] and wants to go to the place Yahveh chooses,

Deuteronomy 18:7 he may minister in the name of Yahveh, his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand there in the presence of Yahveh.

Deuteronomy 18:8 They will eat equal portions besides what he has received from the sale of the family estate.

Deuteronomy 18:9 “When you enter the land Yahveh your God is giving you, do not imitate the repulsive customs of those nations.

Deuteronomy 18:10 No one among you is to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire, practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, practice sorcery,

Deuteronomy 18:11 cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist, or inquire of the dead.

Deuteronomy 18:12 Everyone who does these acts is repulsive to Yahveh, and Yahveh, your God, is taking possession from the nations before you because of these repulsive acts.

Deuteronomy 18:13 You must be complete[3] before Yahveh, your God.

Deuteronomy 18:14 Though these nations you are about to take possession from listen to fortune-tellers and diviners, Yahveh, your God has not permitted you to do this.

Deuteronomy 18:15 “Yahveh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him.

Deuteronomy 18:16 This is what you requested from Yahveh your God at Horeb on the day of the collected assembly, and this is what you said: ‘Let us not hear the voice of Yahveh our God again or see this great fire any longer so that we will not die! ‘

Deuteronomy 18:17 Then Yahveh said to me, ‘They have spoken well.

Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

Deuteronomy 18:19 I will hold accountable whoever does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name.

Deuteronomy 18:20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a message in my name that I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods — that prophet must die.’

Deuteronomy 18:21 You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message Yahveh has not spoken?’

Deuteronomy 18:22 When a prophet speaks in Yahveh’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message Yahveh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be intimidated by him.

[1]אִשֶּׁה = fire offering.

[2]גּוּר = guest. Deuteronomy 18:6; 26:5.

[3]תָּמִים = perfect.  Deut. 18:13; 32:4.

Deuteronomy 18 quotes:

“Here, as in every part of the book of Deuteronomy, the priests are classed with the Levites in a very marked way. We have called the reader’s attention to this as a special characteristic feature of our book, and shall not dwell upon it now, but merely, in |)assing, remind the reader of it, as something claiming his attention. Let him weigh the opening words of our chapter, “^The priests the Levites,” and compare them with the way in which the priests the sons of Aaron are spoken of in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers ; and if he should be disposed to ask the reason of this distinction, we believe it to be this, that in Deuteronomy the divine object is, to bring the whole assembly of Israel more into prominence, and hence it is that the priests in their official capacity come rarelj^ before us. The grand Deuteronomic idea is, Israel in immediate relationship ivith Jehovah.

Now, in the passage just quoted, we have the priests and the Levites linked together, and presented as the Lord’s servants, wholly dependent upon Him, and intimately identified with His altar and His service. This is full of interest, and opens up a very important field of practical truth, to which the Church of God would do well to attend.”

Mackintosh Charles Henry. Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy. Loizeaux Bros 1880. p. 281.

“None of the Levites would share a portion and an inheritance with Israel (v. 1)—that is to say, the Levites as a tribe would not have a portion of the promised land assigned to them as tribal land or territory. They shall eat offerings made by fire to the Lord, and his inheritance. If the word ʾishsheh means “offerings by fire,” then the sense is that the Levites would participate in portions of such offerings (cf. v. 3 below). However, it is possible that the word should simply be translated “gifts, offerings,” without any implications of sacrifice. This possibility seems quite likely in the context of the most general part of the legislation; the Levites would be supported by the generosity of the people, who have already been urged not to forget or neglect them.”

Craigie, Peter C.. The Book of Deuteronomy (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament) (pp. 258-259). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

Deuteronomy 18 links:

called to serve elsewhere
completeness in Christ
in retrospect- those who minister
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, June 7, 2019
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, June 9, 2023
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, June 9, 2021
selfish spiritism
telling the difference
the alternative to Mount Doom
the audience factor

The DEUTERONOMY shelf in Jeff’s library.