Deuteronomio 24:5

5 Quando alcuno avrà presa novellamente moglie, non vada alla guerra, e non siagli imposto affare alcuno; stia esente in casa sua un anno, e sollazzi la sua moglie ch’egli avrà presa.

Deuteronomio 24:5 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 24:5

When a man hath taken a new wife
A wife he has lately married, new to him, though a widow, as Jarchi observes; but the Targum of Jonathan says a virgin; however this is opposed to his old wife, and divorced; for this, as Jarchi and Ben Melech say, excepts the return of a divorced wife, who cannot be said to be a new one:

he shall not go out to war;
this is to be understood of a man that had not only betrothed, but married a wife; a man that had betrothed a wife, and not married her, who went out to war, might return if he would, ( Deuteronomy 20:7 ) ; but one that had married a wife was not to go out to war:

neither shall be charged with any business;
as betrothed ones were; they, though they had a liberty of returning, yet they were to provide food and drink for the army, and to prepare or mend the highways, as Jarchi observes; but these were not obliged to such things, nor even to keep watch on the walls of the city, or to pay taxes, as Maimonides ^F2 writes:

[but] he shall be free at home one year;
not only from all tributes and taxes, and everything relative to the affairs of war, but from public offices and employments, which might occasion absence from home. Jarchi remarks, that his house or home comprehends his vineyard; and so he thinks that this respects his house and his vineyard, that if he had built a house and dedicated it, or planted a vineyard and made it common, yet was not to remove from his house because of the necessities of war:

and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken;
or rejoice with his wife which he hath taken, and solace themselves with love; and thereby not only endear himself to her, but settle his affections on her, and be so confirmed in conjugal love, that hereafter no jealousies may arise, or any cause of divorce, which this law seems to be made to guard against. So it is said ^F3, that Alexander after the battle of Granicus sent home to Macedonia his newly married soldiers, to winter with their wives, and return at spring; which his master Aristotle had taught him, and as he was taught by a Jew.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 Hilchot Melachim, c. 7. sect. 10, 11.
F3 Arrian. Expedit Alex. l. 1.

Deuteronomio 24:5 In-Context

3 e quest’ultimo marito prende ad odiarla, e le scrive il libello del ripudio, e glielo dà in mano, e la manda fuor di casa sua; ovvero, quest’ultimo marito, che se l’avea presa per moglie, muore;

4 non possa il suo primiero marito, il qual l’avea mandata via, tornare a prenderla per essergli moglie, dopo che avrà fatto ch’ella si sia contaminata; perchè ciò è cosa abbominevole nel cospetto del Signore; e non far sì che il paese che il Signore Iddio tuo ti dà in eredità, sia reo di peccato.

5 Quando alcuno avrà presa novellamente moglie, non vada alla guerra, e non siagli imposto affare alcuno; stia esente in casa sua un anno, e sollazzi la sua moglie ch’egli avrà presa.

6 NON prenda alcuno in pegno macine, non pur la mola disopra; perciocchè egli prenderebbe in pegno la vita del suo prossimo.

7 Quando si troverà alcuno che abbia rubato un uomo d’infra i suoi fratelli, figliuoli d’Israele, e ne abbia fatto traffico, e l’abbia venduto, muoia quel ladro; e togli il mal del mezzo di te.