Deuteronomy 21:14-23

14 And then if you do not take delight in her, then you shall let her go {to do whatever she wants}, but you shall not treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

15 "If a man has two wives, [and] the one [is] loved and the [other] one [is] disliked and the one loved and the one that is disliked have borne for him sons, if it happens [that] the firstborn son {belongs to the one that is disliked},

16 [nevertheless] {it will be the case that} on the day of bestowing his inheritance upon his sons, he will not be allowed to treat as [the] firstborn son the son of the beloved [wife] {in preference to} the son of the disliked [wife], [who is] the firstborn [son].

17 But he shall acknowledge the firstborn son of the disliked [wife] {by giving} him a double portion of {all that he has}, for he [is] the firstfruit of his vigor; to him [is] the legal claim of the birthright.

18 "{If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son} [who] {does not listen to} the voice of his father and to the voice of his mother, and they discipline him, and he does not obey them,

19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him, and they shall bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his {town},

20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This our son [is] stubborn and rebellious; {he does not obey us}, [and] he is a glutton and a drunkard.'

21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones and let him die; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all of Israel will hear, and they will fear.

22 "And {if a man commits a sin punishable by death}, and [so] he is put to death and you hang him on a tree,

23 his dead body shall not hang on the tree, but certainly you shall bury him on that day, for cursed by God [is] one that is [being] hung; so you shall not defile your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance."

Deuteronomy 21:14-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 21

This chapter treats of the beheading of the heifer, for the expiation of unknown murder, and the rules to be observed in it, De 21:1-9 of a beautiful captive woman an Israelite is desirous of having for his wife, and what methods he must take to accomplish it, De 21:10-14, of giving the double portion to the firstborn, which he must not be deprived of in favour of the son of a beloved wife, De 21:15-17 and of the stubborn and rebellious son, who remaining so must be put to death, De 21:18-21 and of burying a person hanged on a tree the same day he is executed, De 21:22,23.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "according to her desire/soul"
• [b]. Or "humbled"
• [c]. Literally "is to the wife who is hated"
• [d]. Literally "it will happen"
• [e]. Literally "over the faces of"
• [f]. Literally "to give"
• [g]. Literally "all that is found for him"
• [h]. Or "the beginning of his strength"
• [i]. Or "the just claim of the firstborn"
• [j]. Literally "If shall be for a man, a son stubborn and rebellious"
• [k]. Literally "[and] there is no listening/obedience"
• [l]. Or "listen to"
• [m]. Literally "place"
• [n]. Literally "there is no listening to our voice"
• [o]. Literally "when shall be against a man a sin of judgment of death"
• [p]. Or "ground"