Deuteronomy 21:10
If thou go out to fight against thy enemies, and the Lord thy God deliver them into thy hand, and thou lead them away captives,
Open Deuteronomy 21:10 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Si egressus fueris ad pugnam contra inimicos tuos, et tradiderit eos Dominus Deus tuus in manu tua, captivosque duxeris,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Ἐὰν δὲ ἐξελθὼν εἰς πόλεμον ἐπὶ τοὺς ἐχθρούς σου, καὶ παραδῷ σοι Κύριος ὁ θεός σου εἰς τὰς χεῖράς σου, καὶ προνομεύσεις τὴν προνομὴν αὐτῶν,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כִּֽי תֵצֵ֥א לַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה עַל אֹיְבֶ֑יךָ וּנְתָנ֞וֹ יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ בְּיָדֶ֖ךָ וְשָׁבִ֥יתָ שִׁבְיֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Captives. Some Rabbins say this was only lawful in what they call voluntary wars, which the Lord had not commanded, as in those which were waged against the devoted nations, it was not permitted to reserve the women, even though they should embrace the true religion. Calmet seems to be of the same opinion in the preceding chapter, to which he even refers. But here he thinks, that upon their complying with the condition specified, they might be married, as Rahab was, and consequently this law must be considered as an exception to those general laws, which prohibit matrimony with those nations of Chanaan, which were otherwise ordered to be entirely destroyed, chap. vi. 16. "We believe, says he, that if these women changed their religion, they might be espoused, of whatever nation they might be." He seems still to exclude the Chanaanite women, (chap. xxiii. 3,) which variation of sentiment shews that the point is not to be easily decided. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter XVIII. The Mosaic Law the Fountain of All Ethics, and the Source from Which the Greeks Drew Theirs
Further, it forbids intercourse with a female captive so as to dishonour her. “But allow her,” it says, “thirty days to mourn according to her wish, and changing her clothes, associate with her as your lawful wife.” For it regards it not right that this should take place either in wantonness or for hire like harlots, but only for the birth of children. Do you see humanity combined with continence? The master who has fallen in love with his captive maid it does not allow to gratify his pleasure, but puts a check on his lust by specifying an interval of time; and further, it cuts off the captive’s hair, in order to shame disgraceful love: for if it is reason that induces him to marry, he will cleave to her even after she has become disfigured. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Magnus an Orator of Rome
2. You ask me at the close of your letter why it is that sometimes in my writings I quote examples from secular literature and thus defile the whiteness of the church with the foulness of heathenism. I will now briefly answer your question. You would never have asked it, had not your mind been wholly taken up with Tully; you would never have asked it had you made it a practice instead of studying Volcatius to read the holy scriptures and the commentators upon them. For who is there who does not know that both in Moses and in the prophets there are passages cited from Gentile books and that Solomon proposed questions to the philosophers of Tyre and answered others put to him by them. …