Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 20:5 
Context20:5 Moreover, the officers are to say to the troops, 1 “Who among you 2 has built a new house and not dedicated 3 it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else 4 dedicate it.
Deuteronomy 20:7-8
Context20:7 Or who among you 5 has become engaged to a woman but has not married her? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else marry her.” 20:8 In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, “Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier’s 6 heart as fearful 7 as his own.”
Deuteronomy 24:5
Context24:5 When a man is newly married, he need not go into 8 the army nor be obligated in any way; he must be free to stay at home for a full year and bring joy to 9 the wife he has married.
1 tn Heb “people” (also in vv. 8, 9).
2 tn Heb “Who [is] the man” (also in vv. 6, 7, 8).
3 tn The Hebrew term חָנַךְ (khanakh) occurs elsewhere only with respect to the dedication of Solomon’s temple (1 Kgs 8:63 = 2 Chr 7:5). There it has a religious connotation which, indeed, may be the case here as well. The noun form (חָנֻכָּה, khanukah) is associated with the consecration of the great temple altar (2 Chr 7:9) and of the postexilic wall of Jerusalem (Neh 12:27). In Maccabean times the festival of Hanukkah was introduced to celebrate the rededication of the temple following its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (1 Macc 4:36-61).
4 tn Heb “another man.”
5 tn Heb “Who [is] the man.”
6 tn Heb “his brother’s.”
7 tn Heb “melted.”
8 tn Heb “go out with.”
9 tc For the MT’s reading Piel שִׂמַּח (simmakh, “bring joy to”), the Syriac and others read שָׂמַח (samakh, “enjoy”).
