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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
D E U T E R O N O M Y
CHAP. XXI.
In this chapter provision is made,
I. For the putting away of the guilt of blood from the land, when he
that shed it had fled from justice,
II. For the preserving of the honour of a captive maid,
III. For the securing of the right of a first-born son, though he were
not a favourite,
IV. For the restraining and punishing of a rebellious son,
V. For the maintaining of the honour of human bodies, which must not be
hanged in chains, but decently buried, even the bodies of the worst
malefactors,
| Undetected Murder. | B. C. 1451. |
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1 If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God
giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not
known who hath slain him:
2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they
shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is
slain:
3 And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the
slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer,
which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in
the yoke;
4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto
a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike
off the heifer’s neck there in the valley:
5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them
the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless
in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every
controversy and every stroke be tried:
6 And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the
slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is
beheaded in the valley:
7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this
blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
8 Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast
redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s
charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.
9 So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from
among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight
of the LORD.
Care had been taken by some preceding laws for the vigorous and
effectual persecution of a wilful murderer
&c.), the putting
of whom to death was the putting away of the guilt of blood from the
land; but if this could not be done, the murderer not being discovered,
they must not think that the land was in no danger of contracting any
pollution because it was not through any neglect of theirs that the
murderer was unpunished; no, a great solemnity is here provided for the
putting away of the guilt, as an expression of their dread and
detestation of that sin.
I. The case supposed is that one is found slain, and it is not known
who slew him,
v. 1.
The providence of God has sometimes wonderfully brought to light these
hidden works of darkness, and by strange occurrences the sin of the
guilty has found them out, insomuch that it has become a proverb,
Murder will out. But it is not always so; now and then the
devil’s promises of secresy and impunity in this world are made good;
yet it is but for a while: there is a time coming when secret murders
will be discovered; the earth shall disclose her blood
upon the inquisition which justice makes for it; and there is an
eternity coming when those that escaped punishment from men will lie
under the righteous judgment of God. And the impunity with which so
many murders and other wickednesses are committed in this world makes
it necessary that there should be a day of judgment, to require that
which is past,
Eccl. iii. 15.
II. Directions are given concerning what is to be done in this case.
Observe,
1. It is taken for granted that a diligent search had been made for the
murderer, witnesses examined, and circumstances strictly enquired into,
that if possible they might find out the guilty person; but if, after
all, they could not trace it out, not fasten the charge upon any, then,
(1.) The elders of the next city (that had a court of three and
twenty in it) were to concern themselves about this matter. If it were
doubtful which city was next, the great sanhedrim were to send
commissioners to determine that matter by an exact measure,
Note, Public persons must be solicitous about the public good; and
those that are in power and reputation in cities must lay out
themselves to redress grievances, and reform what is amiss in the
country and neighbourhood that lie about them. Those that are next to
them should have the largest share of their good influence, as
ministers of God for good.
(2.) The priests and Levites must assist and preside in this solemnity
(v. 5),
that they might direct the management of it in all points according to
the law, and particularly might be the people’s mouth to God in the
prayer that was to be put up on this sad occasion,
v. 8.
God being Israel’s King, his ministers must be their magistrates, and
by their word, as the mouth of the court and learned in the laws, every
controversy must be tried. It was Israel’s privilege that they had such
guides, overseers, and rulers, and their duty to make use of them upon
all occasions, especially in sacred things, as this was.
(3.) They were to bring a heifer down into a rough and unoccupied
valley, and to kill it there,
This was not a sacrifice (for it was not brought to the altar), but a
solemn protestation that thus they would put the murderer to death if
they had him in their hands. The heifer must be one that had not drawn
in the yoke, to signify (say some) that the murderer was a son of
Belial; it must be brought into a rough valley, to signify the horror
of the fact, and that the defilement which blood brings upon a land
turns it into barrenness. And the Jews say that unless, after this, the
murderer was found out, this valley where the heifer was killed was
never to be tilled nor sown.
(4.) The elders were to wash their hands in water over the
heifer that was killed, and to profess, not only that they had not shed
this innocent blood themselves, but that they knew not who had
(v. 6, 7),
nor had knowingly concealed the murderer, helped him to make his
escape, or been any way aiding or abetting. To this custom David
alludes,
I will wash my hands in innocency; but if Pilate had any eye to
it
he wretchedly misapplied it when he condemned Christ, knowing him to be
innocent, and yet acquitted himself from the guilt of innocent blood.
Protestatio non valet contra factum–Protestations are of no avail
when contradicted by fact.
(5.) The priests were to pray to God for the country and nation, that
God would be merciful to them, and not bring upon them the judgments
which the connivance at the sin of murder would deserve. It might be
presumed that the murderer was either one of their city or was now
harboured in their city; and therefore they must pray that they might
not fare the worse for his being among them,
Be merciful, O Lord, to thy people Israel,
v. 8.
Note, When we hear of the wickedness of the wicked we have need to cry
earnestly to God for mercy for our land, which groans and trembles
under it. We must empty the measure by our prayers which others are
filling by their sins. Now,
2. This solemnity was appointed,
(1.) That it might give occasion to common and public discourse
concerning the murder, which perhaps might some way or other occasion
the discovery of it.
(2.) That it might possess people with a dread of the guilt of blood,
which defiles not only the conscience of him that sheds it (this should
engage us all to pray with David, Deliver me from
blood–guiltiness), but the land in which it is shed; it cries to
the magistrate for justice on the criminal, and, if that cry be not
heard, it cries to heaven for judgment on the land. If there must be so
much care employed to save the land from guilt when the murderer was
not known, it was certainly impossible to secure it from guilt if the
murderer was known and yet protected. All would be taught, by this
solemnity, to use their utmost care and diligence to prevent, discover,
and punish murder. Even the heathen mariners dreaded the guilt of
blood,
(3.) That we might all learn to take heed of partaking in other men’s
sins, and making ourselves accessory to them ex post facto–after
the fact, by countenancing the sin or sinner, and not witnessing
against it in our places. We have fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness if we do not reprove them rather, and bear our
testimony against them. The repentance of the church of Corinth for the
sin of one of their members produced such a carefulness, such a
clearing of themselves, such a holy indignation, fear, and revenge
as were signified by the solemnity here appointed.
| The Case of Captive Women. | B. C. 1451. |
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10 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,
11 And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a
desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;
12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall
shave her head, and pare her nails;
13 And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her,
and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her
mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her,
and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.
14 And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou
shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at
all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because
thou hast humbled her.
By this law a soldier is allowed to marry his captive if he pleased.
For the hardness of their hearts Moses gave them this permission, lest,
if they had not had liberty given them to marry such, they should have
taken liberty to defile themselves with them, and by such wickedness
the camp would have been troubled. The man is supposed to have a wife
already, and to take this wife for a secondary wife, as the Jews called
them. This indulgence of men’s inordinate desires, in which their
hearts walked after their eyes, is by no means agreeable to the law of
Christ, which therefore in this respect, among others, far exceeds in
glory the law of Moses. The gospel permits not him that has one wife to
take another, for from the beginning it was not so. The gospel
forbids looking upon a woman, though a beautiful one, to lust after
her, and commands the mortifying and denying of all irregular desires,
though it be as uneasy as the cutting off of a right hand; so much does
our holy religion, more than that of the Jews, advance the honour and
support the dominion of the soul over the body, the spirit over the
flesh, consonant to the glorious discovery it makes of life and
immortality, and the better hope.
But, though military men were allowed this liberty, yet care is here
taken that they should not abuse it, that is,
I. That they should not abuse themselves by doing it too hastily,
though the captive was ever so desirable: “If thou wouldest have her
to thy wife
(v. 10, 11),
it is true thou needest not ask her parents’ consent, for she is thy
captive, and is at thy disposal. But,
1. Thou shalt have no familiar intercourse till thou hast married her.”
This allowance was designed to gratify, not a filthy brutish lust, in
the heat and fury of its rebellion against reason and virtue, but an
honourable and generous affection to a comely and amiable person,
though in distress; therefore he may make her his wife if he will, but
he must not deal with her as with a harlot.
2. “Thou shalt not marry her of a sudden, but keep her a full month in
thy house,”
This he must do either,
(1.) That he may try to take his affection off from her; for he must
know that, though in marrying her he does not do ill (so the law then
stood), yet in letting her alone he does much better. Let her therefore
shave her head, that he might not be enamoured with her locks, and
let her nails grow (so the margin reads it), to spoil the beauty
of her hand. Quisquid amas cupias non placuisse nimis–We should
moderate our affection for those things which we are tempted to love
inordinately. Or rather,
(2.) This was done in token of her renouncing idolatry, and becoming a
proselyte to the Jewish religion. The shaving of her head, the paring
of her nails, and the changing of her apparel, signified her putting
off her former conversation, which was corrupt in her ignorance, that
she might become a new creature. She must remain in his house to be
taught the good knowledge of the Lord and the worship of him: and the
Jews say that if she refused, and continued obstinate in idolatry, he
must not marry her. Note, The professors of religion must not be
unequally yoked with unbelievers,
II. That they should not abuse the poor captive.
1. She must have time to bewail her father and mother, from whom
she was separated, and without whose consent and blessing she is now
likely to be married, and perhaps to a common soldier of Israel, though
in her country ever so nobly born and bred. To force a marriage till
these sorrows were digested, and in some measure got over, and she was
better reconciled to the land of her captivity by being better
acquainted with it, would be very unkind. She must not bewail her
idols, but be glad to part with them; to her near and dear relations
only her affection must be thus indulged.
2. If, upon second thoughts, he that had brought her to his house with
a purpose to marry her changed his mind and would not marry her, he
might not make merchandise of her, as of his other prisoners, but must
give her liberty to return, if she pleased, to her own country, because
he had humbled her and afflicted her, by raising expectations and then
disappointing them
(v. 14);
having made a fool of her, he might not make a prey of her. This
intimates how binding the laws of justice and honour are, particularly
in the pretensions of love, the courting of affections, and the
promises of marriage, which are to be looked upon as solemn things,
that have something sacred in them, and therefore are not to be jested
with.
| The Right of the Firstborn. | B. C. 1451. |
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15 If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and
they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated;
and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:
16 Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that
which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved
firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the
firstborn:
17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the
firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath:
for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the
firstborn is his.
This law restrains men from disinheriting their eldest sons out of mere
caprice, and without just provocation.
I. The case here put
(v. 15)
is very instructive.
1. It shows the great mischief of having more wives than one, which the
law of Moses did not restrain, probably in hopes that men’s own
experience of the great inconvenience of it in families would at last
put an end to it and make them a law to themselves. Observe the
supposition here: If a man have two wives, it is a thousand to one but
one of them is beloved and the other hated (that is, manifestly loved
less) as Leah was by Jacob, and the effect of this cannot but be
strifes and jealousies, envy, confusion, and every evil work, which
could not but create a constant uneasiness and vexation to the husband,
and involve him both in sin and trouble. Those do much better consult
their own ease and satisfaction who adhere to God’s law than those who
indulge their own lusts.
2. It shows how Providence commonly sides with the weakest, and
gives more abundant honour to that part which lacked; for the
first-born son is here supposed to be hers that was hated; it
was so in Jacob’s family: because the Lord saw that Leah was
hated,
Gen. xxix. 31.
The great householder wisely gives to each his dividend of comfort; if
one had the honour to be the beloved wife, it often proved that the
other had the honour to be the mother of the first-born.
II. The law in this case is still binding on parents; they must give
their children their right without partiality. In the case supposed,
the eldest son, though the son of the less-beloved wife, must have his
birthright privilege, which was a double portion of the father’s
estate, because he was the beginning of his strength that is, in him
his family began to be strengthened and his quiver began to be filled
with the arrows of a mighty man
and therefore the right of the first-born is his,
Jacob had indeed deprived Reuben of his birthright, and given it to
Joseph, but it was because Reuben had forfeited the birthright by his
incest, not because he was the son of the hated; now, lest that
which Jacob did justly should be drawn into a precedent for others to
do the same thing unjustly, it is here provided that when the father
makes his will, or otherwise settled his estate, the child shall not
fare the worse for the mother’s unhappiness in having less of her
husband’s love, for that was not the child’s fault. Note,
(1.) Parents ought to make no other difference in dispensing their
affections among their children than what they see plainly God makes in
dispensing his grace among them.
(2.) Since it is the providence of God that makes heirs, the disposal
of providence in that matter must be acquiesced in and not opposed. No
son should be abandoned by his father till he manifestly appear to be
abandoned of God, which is hard to say of any while there is life.
| Punishment of a Rebellious Son; Burial of Malefactors. | B. C. 1451. |
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18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not
obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and
that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and
bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of
his place;
20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son
is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is
a glutton, and a drunkard.
21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones,
that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all
Israel shall hear, and fear.
22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be
to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou
shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is
accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD
thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
Here is,
I. A law for the punishing of a rebellious son. Having in the former
law provided that parents should not deprive their children of their
right, it was fit that it should next be provided that children
withdraw not the honour and duty which are owing to their parents, for
there is no partiality in the divine law. Observe,
1. How the criminal is here described. He is a stubborn and
rebellious son,
v. 18.
No child was to fare the worse for the weakness of his capacity, the
slowness or dulness of his understanding, but for his wilfulness and
obstinacy. If he carry himself proudly and insolently towards his
parents, contemn their authority, slight their reproofs and
admonitions, disobey the express commands they give him for his own
good, hate to be reformed by the correction they give him, shame their
family, grieve their hearts, waste their substance, and threaten to
ruin their estate by riotous living–this is a stubborn and
rebellious son. He is particularly supposed
(v. 20)
to be a glutton or a drunkard. This intimates either,
(1.) That these were sins which his parents did in a particular manner
warn him against, and therefore that in these instances there was a
plain evidence that he did not obey their voice. Lemuel had this charge
from his mother,
Note, In the education of children, great care should be taken to
suppress all inclinations to drunkenness, and to keep them out of the
way of temptations to it; in order hereunto they should be possessed
betimes with a dread and detestation of that beastly sin, and taught
betimes to deny themselves. Or,
(2.) That his being a glutton and a drunkard was the cause of
his insolence and obstinacy towards his parents. Note, There is nothing
that draws men into all manner of wickedness, and hardens them in it,
more certainly and fatally than drunkenness does. When men take to
drink they forget the law, they forget all law
even that fundamental law of honouring parents.
2. How this criminal is to be proceeded against. His own father and
mother are to be his prosecutors,
They might not put him to death themselves, but they must complain of
him to the elders of the city, and the complaint must needs be made
with a sad heart: This our son is stubborn and rebellious. Note,
Those that give up themselves to vice and wickedness, and will not be
reclaimed, forfeit their interest in the natural affections of the
nearest relations; the instruments of their being justly become the
instruments of their destruction. The children that forget their duty
must thank themselves and not blame their parents if they are regarded
with less and less affection. And, how difficult soever tender parents
now find it to reconcile themselves to the just punishment of their
rebellious children, in the day of the revelation of the righteous
judgment of God all natural affection will be so entirely swallowed up
in divine love that they will acquiesce even in the condemnation of
those children, because God will be therein for ever glorified.
3. What judgment is to be executed upon him: he must publicly stoned
to death by the men of his city,
v. 21.
And thus,
(1.) The paternal authority was supported, and God, our common Father,
showed himself jealous for it, it being one of the first and most
ancient streams derived from him that is the fountain of all power.
(2.) This law, if duly executed, would early destroy the wicked of
the land.
(Ps. ci. 8),
and prevent the spreading of the gangrene, by cutting off the corrupt
part betimes; for those that were bad members of families would never
make good members of the commonwealth.
(3.) It would strike an awe upon children, and frighten them into
obedience to their parents, if they would not otherwise be brought to
their duty and kept in it: All Israel shall hear. The Jews say,
“The elders that condemned him were to send notice of it in writing all
the nation over, In such a court, such a day, we stoned such a one,
because he was a stubborn and rebellious son.” And I have sometimes
wished that as in all our courts there is an exact record kept of the
condemnation of criminals, in perpetuam rei memoriam–that the
memorial may never be lost, so there might be public and authentic
notice given in print to the kingdom of such condemnations, and the
executions upon them, by the elders themselves, in terrorem–that
all may hear and fear.
II. A law for the burying of the bodies of malefactors that were
hanged,
The hanging of them by the neck till the body was dead was not used at
all among the Jews, as with us; but of such as were stoned to death, if
it were for blasphemy, or some other very execrable crime, it was
usual, by order of the judges, to hang up the dead bodies upon a post
for some time, as a spectacle to the world, to express the ignominy of
the crime, and to strike the greater terror upon others, that they
might not only hear and fear, but see and fear. Now it is here provided
that, whatever time of the day they were thus hanged up, at sun-set
they should be taken down and buried, and not left to hang out all
night; sufficient (says the law) to such a man is this
punishment; hitherto let it go, but no further. Let the malefactor
and his crime be hidden in the grave. Now,
1. God would thus preserve the honour of human bodies and tenderness
towards the worst of criminals. The time of exposing dead bodies thus
is limited for the same reason that the number of stripes was limited
by another law: Lest thy brother seem vile unto thee. Punishing
beyond death God reserves to himself; as for man, there is no more that
he can do. Whether therefore the hanging of malefactors in chains, and
setting up their heads and quarters, be decent among Christians that
look for the resurrection of the body, may perhaps be worth
considering.
2. Yet it is plain there was something ceremonial in it; by the law of
Moses the touch of a dead body was defiling, and therefore dead bodies
must not be left hanging up in the country, because, by the same rule,
this would defile the land. But,
3. There is one reason here given which has reference to Christ. He
that is hanged is accursed of God, that is, it is the highest
degree of disgrace and reproach that can be done to a man, and
proclaims him under the curse of God as much as any external punishment
can. Those that see him thus hang between heaven and earth will
conclude him abandoned of both and unworthy of either; and therefore
let him not hang all night, for that would carry it too far. Now the
apostle, showing how Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law
by being himself made a curse for us, illustrates it by comparing the
brand here put on him that was hanged on a tree with the death of
Christ,
Moses, by the Spirit, uses this phrase of being accursed of God,
when he means no more than being treated most ignominiously, that it
might afterwards be applied to the death of Christ, and might show that
in it he underwent the curse of the law for us, which is a great
enhancement of his love and a great encouragement to our faith in him.
And (as the excellent bishop Patrick well observes) this passage is
applied to the death of Christ, not only because he bore our sins and
was exposed to shame, as these malefactors were that were accursed of
God, but because he was in the evening taken down from the cursed tree
and buried (and that by the particular care of the Jews, with an eye to
this law,
in token that now, the guilt being removed, the law was satisfied, as
it was when the malefactor had hanged till sun-set; it demanded no
more. Then he ceased to be a curse, and those that were his. And, as
the land of Israel was pure and clean when the dead body was buried, so
the church is washed and cleansed by the complete satisfaction which
thus Christ made.
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