Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, by R.A. Torrey, [ca. 1880], at sacred-texts.com
Deuteronomy Chapter 21
Overview
Deu 21:1, The expiation of an uncertain murder; Deu 21:10, The usage of a captive taken to wife; Deu 21:15, The first-born is not to be disinherited upon private affection; Deu 21:18, A rebellious son is to be stoned to death; Deu 21:22, The malefactor must not hang all night on a tree.
Psa 5:6, Psa 9:12; Pro 28:17; Isa 26:21; Act 28:4
Deu 16:18, Deu 16:19; Rom 13:3, Rom 13:4
an: Num 19:2; Jer 31:18; Mat 11:28-30; Phi 2:8
a rough valley: As the word nachal signifies both a torrent, and the valley or glen through which it flows, nachal aithan may be rendered a rapid torrent. Many torrents in Judea are dry during a great part of the year; when not only their banks but their beds may be ploughed, and yield a crop. Hence there is no impropriety in specifying that such a place should be one that "is neither cared nor sown;" while the circumstance that the elders were to wash their hands over the heifer, whose head had been struck off into the stream, confirms this interpretation. The spot of ground where this sacrifice was made must be uncultivated, because it was considered as a sacrifice for the atonement of murder, and, consequently, would pollute the land.
shall strike: Pe1 2:21-24, Pe1 3:18
for them: Deu 10:8, Deu 18:5; Num 6:22-27; Ch1 23:13
by their word: Deu 17:8-12; Mal 2:7
word: Heb. mouth
wash their hands: Washing the hands was anciently a symbolical action, denoting that the person was innocent of the crime in question. Job 9:30; Psa 19:12, Psa 26:6, Psa 51:2, Psa 51:7, Psa 51:14, Psa 73:13; Jer 2:22; Mat 27:24, Mat 27:25; Heb 9:10
Num 5:19-28; Sa2 16:8; Job 21:21-23, Job 21:31-34; Psa 7:3, Psa 7:4
lay not: Num 35:33; Sa2 3:28; Kg2 24:4; Psa 19:12; Jer 26:15; Eze 23:3, Eze 23:24, Eze 23:25; Jon 1:14; Mat 23:35; Th1 2:15, Th1 2:16
unto thy people: Heb. in the midst
shalt thou: Deu 19:12, Deu 19:13
when thou shalt: Deu 13:18; Kg2 10:30, Kg2 10:31
thou goest: Deu 20:10-16
desire: Gen 6:2, Gen 12:14, Gen 12:15, Gen 29:18-20, Gen 34:3, Gen 34:8; Jdg 14:2, Jdg 14:3; Pro 6:25, Pro 31:10, Pro 31:30
that: Num 31:18
and she shall: This was in token of renouncing her religion, and becoming a proselyte to that of the Jews. This is still a custom in the East. when a Christian turns Mohammedan, his head is shaved, and he is carried through the city, crying, la eelah eela allah wemochammed resoolu7)llahee, "There is no God but the God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." Co1 11:6; Eph 4:22
pare her nails: or, suffer to grow, Heb. make, or dress, Weâsethah eth tzipparneyha, "and she shall make her nails;" i.e., probably neither paring nor letting them grow, but dressing or beautifying them as the Eastern women still do by tinging them with the leaves of an odoriferous plant called alhenna, which Hasselquist (p. 246) informs us, "grows in India and in upper and lower Egypt, flowering from May to August. The leaves are pulverized and made into a paste with water. they bind this paste on the nails of their hands and feet, and keep it on all night. This gives them a deep yellow, which is greatly admired by Eastern nations. The colour lasts for three or four weeks before there is occasion to renew it. The custom is so ancient in Egypt, that I have seen the nails of mummies dyed in this manner.
and bewail: Psa 45:10, Psa 45:11; Luk 14:26, Luk 14:27
thou shalt: Exo 21:7-11
because thou: Deu 22:19, Deu 22:24, Deu 22:29; Gen 34:2; Jdg 19:24
two wives: Gen 29:18, Gen 29:20, Gen 29:30, Gen 29:31, Gen 29:33; Sa1 1:4, Sa1 1:5
Ch1 5:2, Ch1 26:10; Ch2 11:19-22, Ch2 21:3; Rom 8:29; Phi 4:8; Heb 12:16, Heb 12:17
by giving: Gen 25:5, Gen 25:6, Gen 25:32, Gen 25:34; Ch1 5:1, Ch1 5:2
that he hath: Heb. that is found with him
the beginning: Gen 49:3; Psa 105:36
the right: Gen 25:31-34
have a stubborn: Pro 28:24, Pro 30:11, Pro 30:17; Isa 1:2
obey the voice: Deu 27:16; Exo 20:12, Exo 21:15, Exo 21:17; Lev 19:3, Lev 21:9; Pro 15:5, Pro 20:20; Eze 22:7
when they: Deu 8:5; Sa2 7:14; Pro 13:24, Pro 19:18, Pro 22:15, Pro 23:13, Pro 23:14, Pro 29:17; Heb 12:9-11
will not: Isa 1:5; Jer 5:3, Jer 31:18; Eze 24:13; Amo 4:11, Amo 4:12
and bring: Deu 21:2, Deu 16:18, Deu 25:7; Zac 13:3
he will not: Pro 29:17
he is a glutton: Pro 19:26, Pro 20:1, Pro 23:19-21, Pro 23:29-35
all the men: Deu 13:10, Deu 13:11, Deu 17:5; Lev 24:16
so shalt thou: Deu 13:5, Deu 13:11, Deu 19:19, Deu 19:20, Deu 22:21, Deu 22:24
all Israel: Deu 13:11
Jos 8:29, Jos 10:26; So in Num 25:4, we read, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads (chief men) of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel." Among the Romans, in after ages, they hanged, or rather fastened to the tree ALIVE; and such was the cruel death of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Deu 19:6, Deu 22:26; Sa1 26:16; Mat 26:66; Act 23:29, Act 25:11, Act 25:25, Act 26:31
worthy of death: Heb. of the judgment of death, The Hebrews understand this not of putting to death by hanging, but of hanging a man up after he was stoned to death; which was done more ignominiously of some heinous malefactors. We have the examples of Rechab and Baanah, who, for murdering Ish-bosheth, were slain by David's commandment, their hand and feet cut off, and then hanged up. Sa2 4:12
thou hang: Sa2 21:6, Sa2 21:9; Luk 23:33; Joh 19:31-38
he that is hanged is accursed of God: Heb. the curse of God, That is, it is the highest degree of reproach that can attach to a man, and proclaims him under the curse of God as much as any external punishment can. They that see him thus hanging between heaven and earth, will conclude him abandoned of both, and unworthy of either. Bp. Patrick observes, that this passage is applied to the death of Christ; not only because he bare 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, Joh 19:31), in token, that now the guilt being removed, the law was satisfied, as it was when the malefactors had hanged till sun-set. it demanded no more. Then he, and those that are his, ceased to be a curse. And as the land of Israel was pure and clean when the body was buried, so the church is washed and cleansed by the complete satisfaction which Christ thus made. Deu 7:26; Num 25:4; Jos 7:12; Sa2 21:6; Rom 9:3; Gal 3:13; Co1 16:22; Co2 5:21