Bible Commentaries
Go deeper in Scripture
Browse trusted public-domain commentary alongside DiscipleDeck Bible study. References inside each commentary open Bible previews in place.
35,156 commentary entries
All active commentary sources
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:14
Should the man afterwards come no longer to have pleasure in her, he was to let her go whither she would, but he was not to sell her for money or use any violence to her. Thou shalt not make merchandise of her. The verb…
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 21:15-17
This law restrains men from disinheriting their eldest sons without just cause. The principle in this case as to children, is still binding to parents; they must give children their right without partiality.
The Right of the Firstborn. (b. c. 1451.)
THE RIGHT OF THE FIRSTBORN. (B. C. 1451.) This law restrains men from disinheriting their eldest sons out of mere caprice, and without just provocation. I. The case here put (Deuteronomy 21:15) is very instructive. 1. I…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:15-18
The firstborn of the hated wife. The firstborn, in patriarchal and tribal societies, had recognized rights and honors, correlative with the duties and responsibilities which his position as prospective head of the house…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:15-17
The rights of the firstborn in the house of a bigamist. Bigamy was not encouraged by the Mosaic Law. Where it took place in man's passion, the Law stepped in to regulate the relations in the household impartially. The h…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:15-17
Home partialities never to warp home justice. This paragraph indicates deep insight into human nature, and a far-seeing wisdom which surely indicates its superhuman origin. It is designed to restrict the action of the f…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:15-17
Monogamy essential to domestic peace. Every indication of God's will is a finger-post to felicity. A wise man will not wait for peremptory law. The faintest whisper of Jehovah's will is law to him. Without doubt, that e…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:15-17
If a man have two wives, one of whom is a favorite and the other disliked, and if his firstborn son be the child of the latter, he is not to allow his love for the other to prejudice the right of the son, but must allow…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:16
He may not make; literally, is not able to make; i.e. is legally incapable of making.
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:17
A double portion; literally, a mouth of two; i.e. a portion (so "mouth" is used in 2 Kings 2:9; Zechariah 13:8) equal to that of two; consequently, the firstborn inherited twice as much as any of the other sons. Amongst…
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 21:18-21
Observe how the criminal is here described. He is a stubborn and rebellious son. No child was to fare the worse for weakness of capacity, slowness, or dulness, but for wilfulness and obstinacy. Nothing draws men into al…
Punishment of a Rebellious Son; Burial of Malefactors. (b. c. 1451.)
PUNISHMENT OF A REBELLIOUS SON; BURIAL OF MALEFACTORS. (B. C. 1451.) Here is, I. A law for the punishing of a rebellious son. Having in the former law provided that parents should not deprive their children of their rig…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:18-21
A slippery path to ruin. It is of the first importance that a child should begin life well. A twist in the young stem will develop into a gnarled and crooked tree. A slight divergence at the outset of a voyage may end i…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:18-21
If a son was refractory and unmanageable by his parents, if, given to sensual indulgence, he would yield neither to reproof nor to chastisement,—the parents were to lay hold on him, and lead him to the ciders of the tow…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:18-21
A bad son a State peril. This is a very remarkable provision. It is based on the well-known fact that there are some who need a strong deterrent to keep them from being a plague and peril to a State, and also on the all…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:18-23
Parental authority enforced. It is plain that parents are to deal with their children to the best of their ability: but in case a stubborn and rebellious son would not hearken to father or mother, would not appreciate c…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:18-21
The rebellious son. A law of this kind, which left it to the parents themselves to impeach their disobedient son, while ordaining that, when the charge was proved against him, and it could be shown that the parents had…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:20
He will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. Gluttony and drunkenness were regarded by the Hebrews as highly criminal. The word rendered by "glutton," however ( זוֹלַל, from זָלַל, to shake, to shake out…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:21
The penalty of such crimes was death; but the power of inflicting this was not among the Hebrews—as among some other ancient peoples, the Greeks and Romans, for instance—left with the father; the punishment could be inf…
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 21:22-23
By the law of Moses, the touch of a dead body was defiling, therefore dead bodies must not be left hanging, as that would defile the land. There is one reason here which has reference to Christ; “He that is hanged is ac…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:22
If a man have committed a sin worthy of death; literally, If there be on a man a judgment of death; if he lie under sentence of death. Hang him on a tree. This refers not to putting to death by strangling, but to the im…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:23
He that is hanged is accursed of God; literally, a curse of God. Some take this as meaning an insult to God, a contemning of him, "since man his image is thus given up to scorn and insult" (Rashi). But the more probable…
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 22:1-4
If we duly regard the golden rule of “doing to others as we would they should do unto us,” many particular precepts might be omitted. We can have no property in any thing that we find. Religion teaches us to be neighbou…
Kindness and Humanity. (b. c. 1451.)
KINDNESS AND HUMANITY. (B. C. 1451.) The kindness that was commanded to be shown in reference to an enemy (Exodus 23:4-5, &c.) is here required to be much more done for a neighbour, though he were not an Israelite, for…