Deuteronomy 12:12

12:12 You shall rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God, along with your sons, daughters, male and female servants, and the Levites in your villages (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).

Deuteronomy 19:6

19:6 Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, and kill him, though this is not a capital case since he did not hate him at the time of the accident.

Deuteronomy 21:14

21:14 If you are not pleased with her, then you must let her go where she pleases. You cannot in any case sell her; you must not take advantage of her, since you have already humiliated 10  her.

Deuteronomy 28:55

28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict 11  you in your villages.

Deuteronomy 28:57

28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth 12  and her newborn children 13  (since she has nothing else), 14  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.


tn Heb “within your gates” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “who belongs to your community.”

sn They have no allotment or inheritance with you. See note on the word “inheritance” in Deut 10:9.

tn Heb “and overtake him, for the road is long.”

tn Heb “smite with respect to life,” that is, fatally.

tn Heb “no judgment of death.”

sn Heb “send her off.” The Hebrew term שִׁלַּחְתָּה (shillakhtah) is a somewhat euphemistic way of referring to divorce, the matter clearly in view here (cf. Deut 22:19, 29; 24:1, 3; Jer 3:1; Mal 2:16). This passage does not have the matter of divorce as its principal objective, so it should not be understood as endorsing divorce generally. It merely makes the point that if grounds for divorce exist (see Deut 24:1-4), and then divorce ensues, the husband could in no way gain profit from it.

tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by the words “in any case.”

tn The Hebrew text includes “for money.” This phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

tn Or perhaps “must not enslave her” (cf. ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); Heb “[must not] be tyrannical over.”

10 sn You have humiliated her. Since divorce was considered rejection, the wife subjected to it would “lose face” in addition to the already humiliating event of having become a wife by force (21:11-13). Furthermore, the Hebrew verb translated “humiliated” here (עָנָה, ’anah), commonly used to speak of rape (cf. Gen 34:2; 2 Sam 13:12, 14, 22, 32; Judg 19:24), likely has sexual overtones as well. The woman may not be enslaved or abused after the divorce because it would be double humiliation (see also E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy [NAC], 291).

11 tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

12 tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

13 tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

14 tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”