Deuteronomy 21:11
And seest in the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and lovest her, and wilt have her to wife,
Open Deuteronomy 21:11 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et videris in numero captivorum mulierem pulchram, et adamaveris eam, voluerisque habere uxorem,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἴδῃς ἐν τῇ προνομῇ γυναῖκα καλὴν τῷ εἴδει, καὶ ἐνθυμηθῇς αὐτῆς καὶ λάβῃς αὐτὴν σαυτῷ γυναῖκα,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְרָאִיתָ֙ בַּשִּׁבְיָ֔ה אֵ֖שֶׁת יְפַת תֹּ֑אַר וְחָשַׁקְתָּ֣ בָ֔הּ וְלָקַחְתָּ֥ לְךָ֖ לְאִשָּֽׁה
Haydock's commentary
Lovest her. The Jewish doctors explain this of an action, which modesty disallows, and which they tolerate nevertheless in the first transports of victory; (Selden, Jur. v. 13,) though the pagans condemned it as unjust and contrary to reason. (Grotius, Jur. iii. 4) , All know with what reserve Alexander treated the captive women; and the Romans banished one Torquatus, for having violated a prisoner of war. (Plutarch) , Yet the Jews blush not to assert, that such liberties might be taken even with married women, as their former marriage with a pagan was by some deemed null, and by others thought to be dissolved. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] iv. 8) (Calmet) , The law, however, seems only to allow the marrying of those who had no husbands before, as the women are only said to mourn for father and mother, ver. 13. (Haydock) , On these occasions the Chinese, and probably the Egyptians also, and the Roman matrons, formerly clothed themselves in white, while almost all other nations assumed black. (Tirinus)
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. …
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Book III
His sic ostensis, age Scripturas, quæ adversantur sophistis hæreticis, jam adducamus, et regulam continentiæ secundum logon seu rationem observandam declaremus. Qui vero intelligit, quæ Scriptura cuique hæresi contraria sit, cam tempestive adhibendo refutabit eos, qui dogmata mandatis contraria fingunt. Atque ut ab alto rem repetamus, lex quidem, sicut prius diximus, illud, “Non concupisces uxorem proximi tui,” prius exclamavit ante conjunctam Domini in Novo Testamento vocem, quæ dicit ex sua ipsius persona: “Audivistis legem præcipientem: Non mœchaberis. Ego autem dico: Non concupisces.” Quod enim vellet lex viros uti moderate uxoribus, et propter solam liberorum susceptionem, ex eo clarum est, quod prohibet quidem eum, qui non habet uxorem, statim cum” captiva” habere consuetudinem. Quod si semel desideraverit, ei, cum tonsa fuerit capillos, permittere ut lugeat triginta diebus. …
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. …