“When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them away captive,
Parallel translations
- WEB When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive,
- KJV 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,
- BSB When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive,
- NKJV “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive,
- NLT “Suppose you go out to war against your enemies and the Lord your God hands them over to you, and you take some of them as captives.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
This introduces a law governing a captive woman taken in war whom an Israelite wishes to marry. It begins to humanize and restrain conduct toward war captives.
Overview
In the ancient Near East, captive women were routinely abused, but God's law here begins to regulate and limit such treatment (vv. 10-14). The setting assumes God grants victory and the resulting captives. Rather than license, the law imposes a deliberate process that dignifies the woman and curbs male impulse, reflecting God's concern for the vulnerable even amid the harsh realities of war.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 2
- Deut 20:10–16When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.
- Josh 21:44Yahweh gave them rest all around, according to all that he swore to their fathers. Not a man of all their enemies stood before them. Yahweh delivered all their enemies into their hand.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 21:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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