Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Deuteronomy

[Spud Bacon]

In Deuteronomy 21: 13 it says that a female captive of war was allowed to mourn for a month if her Israelite captor wanted to marry her. I was just wondering what happened to the other female captives that the men didn't want to marry? Were they allowed to mourn, too, or did they just have to go straight to work?

Marrying a Captive Woman

10 When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, 11 if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails 13 and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. 14 If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

[jimwalton]

In ancient Israel, if they bothered to bring prisoners of war back to their homes, it was to incorporate them into the family structure as part of the working force. A non-technological agricultural society needed many hands: farming, cooking, sewing, equipment repair, etc. Soldiers could bring back workers that they would bring into the home and assimilate into their family structure. That's what would happen to other female captives that the men didn't want to marry. If they didn't need those helping hands, they wouldn't bother to bring them back. Too many mouths to feed was not desirable unless it was a contractual relationship (you live here and be part of our family and help out around the house, and we'll feed, house, clothe, and otherwise provide for you).

If, however, there was one he wanted to marry, there were these rules about how to go about it. There was no sexual abuse here, exploitation, sexual slavery, or rape. If the man wanted a woman, he could take her as his wife following certain cultural protocols. Female captives were not viewed as property without rights over their own bodies as they were in later Rome and the colonial West. If an Israelite wanted a female captive sexually, he had to make vows to her in the covenant relationship of marriage, which obligated him to protect and care for her.

> Were they allowed to mourn, too, or did they just have to go straight to work?

Of course they were allowed to mourn, too. Israelite law was all about treating people with dignity.

[Spud Bacon]

> There was no sexual abuse here, exploitarion, sexual slavery, or rape

Oh! This was going to be my next post question! Because in v. 14, it says he can't sell her as a slave "since you have dishonored her."

So I was going to ask: 1) By "dishonor" do they mean "rape"?

I was thinking about it, and it seems likely that a lot of these women might not have wanted to sleep with the guy who was directly or indirectly responsible for the death of her parents, even after a month. So I was thinking rape might've been involved in quite a few cases.

[jimwalton]

> This was going to be my next post question! Because in v. 14, it says he can't sell her as a slave "since you have dishonored her."

Great question, glad you asked. The answer is no, "dishonor" doesn't mean "rape." The term is עִנִּיתָהּ, and it means "Abased; afflicted; oppressed; humbled." It has a variety of shades of meaning and is used in different ways to means different things. Generally in Hebrew it refers to what one does to his enemy.

• The discomfort Sarah inflicted on Hagar (Gn. 16.6)—She made her life miserable because she despised her.
• What the lawless do to the defenseless (Ex. 22.22)—taking unfair economic advantage of the widows and orphans because they were powerless.
• The pain inflicted on Joseph by his fetters (Ps. 105.18)
• What Egypt did to Israel (Ex. 1.11-12) in unfair labor practices and economic exploitation.
• The physical pain brought by war (Num. 24.24; Judges)
• What God does to His enemies—afflict them and conquer them. (God uses this affliction to bring his enemies to repentance.)
• The root may also be used to denote humbling. Pharaoh refuses to submit himself to the Lord (Ex. 10.3).
• It is used in case of rape in Dt. 22.29; Gn. 34.2. (Notice that neither of these uses as rape pertains to warfare.)

Here, however, it refers to the woman after she has grieved for a month, after he has married her, and then is not pleased with her. Therefore it means he humiliated her by taking her as a wife and then rejecting her with divorce. The Mosaic Law took very seriously the sanctity of marriage. If this man was going to dishonor her by divorcing her after bringing her back to his home and marrying her, there were to be conditions:

• He was to let her go wherever she wishes. He was not in control of her.
• He was not to sell her like a piece of property (chattel)
• He was not to treat her like a slave. She was not a slave, but rather his WIFE.

Daniel Block comments, "For women, few circumstances are more fearful than the conquest of their towns by a foreign army. This ordinance (Dt. 21.14) was designed to rein in the potential for male abuse of women in such contexts. This paragraph serves not as a legal provision for a soldier to marry a woman in circumstances where contractual arrangements with the bride’s family are impossible, nor as an authorization of divorce from a foreign bride—both practices are assumed—but as an appeal to Israelites to be charitable in their treatment of foreign women, who, through no decision or fault of their own, are forced to become a part of the Israelite community. Verses 10-13 call for the charitable treatment of foreign brides when they are first taken; verse 14 for their charitable treatment in divorce."

> So I was thinking rape might've been involved in quite a few cases.

Rape of women by Israelite soldiers was strictly prohibited. Though such things are unfortunately common in war, it was not to be the case for Israel. The Law of Moses built in protection and rights for such women, treating them with dignity and honor.