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Monday, October 28th, 2024
the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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Green's Literal Translation

Deuteronomy 21:12

then you shall bring her into the midst of your household. And she shall shave her head, and prepare her nails,

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Concubinage;   Divorce;   Marriage;   Servant;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Husband;   Slave;   War;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Devote, Devoted;   War, Holy War;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Alms;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Concubine;   Mourn;   Nail;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Baldness;   Camphire;   Nail;   War;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Burial;   Concubine;   Nail;   Pare;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Clean and Unclean;   Crimes and Punishments;   Deuteronomy;   Ethics;   Family;   Hair;   Head;   Marriage;   Nail;   Slave, Slavery;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Concubine;   Mourning;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Camphire;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Beard;   Deuteronomy;   Home;   Law in the Old Testament;   Nail;   Pare (the Nails);   Relationships, Family;   Shaving;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Captives;   Hair;   Intermarriage;   Nail;   Shaving;  

Parallel Translations

English Standard Version
and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails.
Update Bible Version
then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
English Revised Version
then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
New Century Version
Bring her into your home, where she must shave her head and cut her nails
New English Translation
you may bring her back to your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,
Webster's Bible Translation
Then thou shalt bring her home to thy house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails:
World English Bible
then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
Amplified Bible
then you shall bring her [home] to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails [in preparation for mourning].
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
thou schalt brynge hir in to thin hows; `which womman schal schaue the heer, and schal kitte the nailes aboute, and sche schal putte awei the clooth,
Young's Literal Translation
then thou hast brought her in unto the midst of thy household, and she hath shaved her head, and prepared her nails,
Berean Standard Bible
then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,
American Standard Version
then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
Bible in Basic English
Then take her back to your house; and let her hair and her nails be cut;
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Thou shalt bryng her home to thine house, and she shall shaue her head, and shall pare her nayles,
Complete Jewish Bible
you are to bring her home to your house, where she will shave her head, cut her fingernails
Darby Translation
then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
Easy-to-Read Version
You must then bring her into your house where she will shave her head and cut her nails.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
King James Version (1611)
Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and shee shall shaue her head, and pare her nailes.
New Life Bible
bring her home to your house. There she will cut off all the hair from her head and cut her nails.
New Revised Standard
and so you bring her home to your house: she shall shave her head, pare her nails,
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
then shalt thou bring her into the midst of thy house, - and she shall shave her head and pare her nails;
Geneva Bible (1587)
Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shal shaue her head, and pare her nayles,
George Lamsa Translation
Then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head and pare her nails;
Good News Translation
Take her to your home, where she will shave her head, cut her fingernails,
Douay-Rheims Bible
Thou shalt bring her into thy house: and she shall shave her hair, and pare her nails,
Revised Standard Version
then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and shouldest bring her within thine house: then shalt thou shave her head, and pare her nails;
Christian Standard Bible®
you are to bring her into your house. She is to shave her head, trim her nails,
Hebrew Names Version
then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
King James Version
Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
Lexham English Bible
then you shall bring her into your household, and she shall shave her head, and she shall trim her nails.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
the brynge her home to thine house, and let her shaue hir heade, and pare hir nayles,
New American Standard Bible
then you shall bring her into your home, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.
New King James Version
then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.
New Living Translation
If this happens, you may take her to your home, where she must shave her head, cut her nails,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.
Legacy Standard Bible
then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.

Contextual Overview

10 When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Jehovah your God has given them into your hands, and you have taken them captive; 11 and you have seen in the captivity a woman of beautiful form, and you desire her, even to take her to you for a wife, 12 then you shall bring her into the midst of your household. And she shall shave her head, and prepare her nails, 13 and shall remove the clothing of her captivity from her, and shall live in your house, and shall sorrow for her father and her mother a month of days. Then afterwards you shall go in to her, and shall marry her; and she shall be a wife to you. 14 And it shall be, if you do not delight in her, you shall send her away at her desire; and you shall not at all sell her for silver; you shall not treat her as a slave, because you have humbled her.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

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 resoolullahee, "There is no God but the God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." 1 Corinthians 11:6; Ephesians 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.

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 19:24 - dressed his feet 1 Corinthians 11:5 - shaven

Cross-References

Genesis 17:19
And God said, Your wife Sarah truly shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. And I have established My covenant with him for a perpetual covenant with his seed after him.
Genesis 17:21
And I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.
Genesis 21:7
And she said, Who would have said to Abraham, Will Sarah suckle sons? For I have borne a son to his old age.
Genesis 21:8
And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.
1 Samuel 8:7
And Jehovah said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people, to all that they say to you. For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from reigning over them.
1 Samuel 8:9
And now listen to their voice. Only, protesting you shall protest to them, and shall declare to them the privilege of the king who shall reign over them.
Isaiah 46:10
declaring the end from the beginning, and from the past those things which were not done, saying, My counsel shall rise; and, I will do all My desire;
Hebrews 11:18
as to whom it was said, "In Isaac your Seed shall be called;" Gen. 21:12

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house,.... In order to make her his wife, after some things were done here directed to; for this is not to be understood of his taking her home with a view to defile her, as Maimonides e interprets it; who observes, that when a man's lust so rages that he cannot subdue it, yet he ought not publicly to satisfy his lust, but to have the woman into a private and secret place, as it is said,

thou shalt bring her into the midst of thine house; nor was he permitted to lie with her in the camp, nor was it lawful for him to defile her a second time, until her mourning was at an end; though elsewhere f he gives a different sense of this passage, and supposes the man to have lain with the captive woman, before the introduction of her into his house; for it is a notion that prevails with the Jewish writers, that an Israelitish soldier might lie once with an Heathen woman taken captive, to gratify his lust, but might not repeat it; so it is said in the Talmud g; yet it must be observed, that there are some, though but few, who are of opinion that the first congress was unlawful, and that he might not touch her until certain conditions were fulfilled, and they were married, as R. Jochanan h; and which is embraced, supported, and defended by Abarbinel on the place, and in which he is undoubtedly right; and so it is understood by Josephus i and Philo k; for this law gives no liberty nor countenance to the violation of the beautiful captive. The plain meaning is, that when a Jewish soldier was passionately in love with a captive, and was desirous of making her his wife, he was to take her home to his house, where she was to remain, to see whether his passion of love would subside, or the woman become a proselyte, or however till certain rites were observed, and then he was permitted to marry her:

and she shall shave her head; either that she might be the less engaging, her flowing locks, or plaited hair, or modish headdress, being removed from her, which had served to excite a passion for her; or as a token of mourning for her present afflicted state and condition; and in afflicted circumstances it was usual to shave the head; see Job 1:20; and though it was forbidden the Israelites, yet not Gentiles; Deuteronomy 14:1

and pare her nails; this and the former some think were ordered to make her fit to be his wife, and were a sort of purification of her, and an emblem of her having renounced Heathenism, and having departed from it, and laid aside all superfluity of former naughtiness; but this phrase is interpreted in the Targum of Onkelos, "let her nails grow"; and so the Arabic version: and this the Jewish writers say was ordered to be done, that she might appear ugly and disagreeable to him, and be abhorred by him; so Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Ben Melech; the same is observed by Maimonides l, and is the sense of R. Akiba m. Another of their writers n think it refers to a custom in some nations to dye their nails.

"The daughters of the Heathens (he says) used to adorn the nails of their hands and feet, and dye them with various colours, according to the custom of the Ishmaelites (or Turks); that there might be a variety in their hands, and men might look at them, take them and handle them until the fire of hell, and an evil concupiscence, burned; wherefore this is ordered that they might let them grow, without any preparation or die.''

But perhaps this neglect of their nails, and suffering them to grow, was in token of mourning as well as shaving the head, as also sometimes even paring the nails was done on the same account.

e Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 41. f Hilchot Melachim, c. 8. sect. 2. g T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 21. 2. h Apud Abarbinel in loc. & R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 14. 1. i Antiqu. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 23. k De Charitate, p. 706. l Ut supra. (Hilchot Melachim, c. 8.) sect. 5. m In T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 48. 2. n R. Abraham Seba in Tzeror Hammor, fol. 146. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The shaving the head (a customary sign of purification, Leviticus 14:8; Numbers 8:7), and the putting away “the garment of her captivity,” were designed to signify the translation of the woman from the state of a pagan and a slave to that of a wife among the covenant-people. Consistency required that she should “pare” (dress, compare 2 Samuel 19:24), not “suffer to grow,” her nails; and thus, so far as possible, lay aside everything belonging to her condition as an alien.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Deuteronomy 21:12. She shall shave her head — This was in token of her 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 shaven, and he is carried through the city crying, [Arabic] la alahila allah we Mohammed resooli Allah; "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God."

Pare her nails — ועשתה את צפרניה veasethah eth tsipporneyha, "she shall make her nails." Now whether this signifies paring or letting them grow, is greatly doubted among learned men. Possibly it means neither, but colouring the nails, staining them red with the hennah, which is much practised in India to the present day, and which was undoubtedly practised among the ancient Egyptians, as is evident from the nails of mummies which are found thus stained. The hennah, according to Hasselquist, grows in India, and in Upper and Lower Egypt; it flowers from May to August. The manner of using it is this: the leaves are powdered, and made into a paste with water: they bind this paste on the nails of their fingers and toes, and let it stand on all night; in the morning they are found to be of a beautiful reddish yellow, and this lasts three weeks or a month, after which they renew the application. They often stain the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet in the same way, as appears from many paintings of eastern ladies done in India and Persia, which now lie before me. This staining the soles of the feet with the hennah is probably meant in 2 Samuel 19:24: Mephibosheth had not dressed (literally made) his feet - they had not been thus coloured.


 
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