when i was df i decided to use the time wisely and read the insight books which is how i came across this
The armies of pagan nations often raped the women of conquered cities, but not so the victorious soldiers of Israel. Nor were they permitted for a month to marry a captive woman.?De 21:10-13.
looked up the scripture and this is what it said
10
"In case you go out to the battle against your enemies and Jehovah your God has given them into your hand and you have carried them away captive; 11 and you have seen among the captives a woman beautiful in form, and you have got attached to her and taken her for your wife, 12 you must then bring her into the midst of your house. She must now shave her head and attend to her nails, 13 and remove the mantle of her captivity from off her and dwell in your house and weep for her father and her mother a whole lunar month; and after that you should have relations with her, and you must take possession of her as your bride, and she must become your wife. looked up a number of references and all made the point that this was a loving arrangement..(some of these are below)..but all omitted the next verse
14
And it must occur that if you have found no delight in her, you must then send her away, agreeably to her own soul; but you must by no means sell her for money. You must not deal tyrannically with her after you have humiliated her. WHAT?????????
wt 52 p 542-543?
Deuteronomy 21:10-13 shows that Israelite men could marry foreign captive women, yet other texts forbid intermarriage with foreigners. Is this not contradictory??M. H., Pennsylvania.Jehovah gives the reason for the general prohibition concerning foreign wives, as follows: "They would turn your sons from following me to serving alien gods." Also divine warning was sounded against "marrying your sons to their daughters, who will desert to their gods and make your sons desert also". (Ex. 34:16, Mo; Deut. 7:4, AT) The prohibition was based on no racial prejudice nor any nationalistic grounds, but it was solely for the purpose of protecting the Israelites from religious contamination. It was to avoid contacts that might jeopardize the purity of worship rendered to Jehovah.
But notice how the special circumstances involved in the case discussed at Deuteronomy 21:10-13 eliminate this danger of contamination: "When thou shalt go forth to war against thine enemies, and Yahweh thy God shall deliver them into thy hand and thou shalt take them captive; and shalt see among the captives a woman of beautiful figure, and shalt have a desire unto her, and wouldest take her to thee to wife, then shalt thou bring her into the midst of thy house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails; and put away the raiment of her captivity from off her and shall remain in thy house, and bewail her father and her mother for the space of a month, and after that mayest thou go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife."?Ro.
She cut off her hair, which was the usual sign of mourning. (Job 1:20; Isa. 15:2; Jer. 7:29; Amos 8:10; Mic. 1:16) She either cut her nails close, which would remove this means of adornment, since they were stained to be attractive; or she let them grow to become unkept, without their usual manicured attractiveness. (Deut. 21:12, Knox; Le) She put off the raiment in which she was taken captive, since the women of defeated forces put on their finest dresses and ornaments in the hope of finding favor in the eyes of their captors. For a month she was in mourning, bewailing the loss of her loved ones, thus possibly indicating the thoroughness of the war?s destructiveness at the time of her capture. The captive women were possibly the only survivors, and the heathen gods were doubtless destroyed by the Israelite warriors. So no ties were left with the pagan nation, either socially or religiously. There were no heathen in-laws for the Israelite man to mix in with.
Hence to marry a foreign woman so completely severed from connection with false gods and false worshipers was permissible. It was quite different from marrying a foreign woman not a captive whose relatives were living, whose religious gods were still worshiped by her family, who would from time to time have some contact with her heathen relatives and their gods, and who might bring her Israelite husband into contact with them also, thereby exposing his pure worship to contamination. So it was the special circumstances of Deuteronomy 21:10-13 that allowed for an exception to the general prohibition of intermarriage with foreign women.
Let your utterance be always with graciousness, seasoned with salt, so as to know how you ought to give an answer to each one.?Col. 4:6, NW.
Cant help but think that any women in a city being attacked by an enemy nation must have prayed it wasnt the jews