Deuteronomy 21:10-14 (ESV)
“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.
War is a terrible thing. God does not ignore that the sinful nature of mankind (due to the disobedience of Adam) caused mankind to kill and to destroy (see the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4). In the above passage God gives a law that mitigates some of the harshness of war. God doesn’t stop wars, but He does outline what it should look like. The above law is a law that protects the weak from the strong. The victor of the war gets the bounty from the war. In the above case it is a female captive. God makes sure that the victor does not abuse their power. By the law, the Israel people, in their victory in war, are to assure that female captive is afforded:
1. Not to be raped or abused. She is to be treated as another human being.
2. She is given time to emotionally absorb the loss and trauma she has experienced. She is not immediately put into a situation until she recovers from this loss.
3. She is given the full rights of a married woman and wife and not to be treated less than. This is a huge concept that is often loss in war.
4. If, after this adjustment time, the victor suddenly changes his mind, the woman is still treated as a fellow human being and is given her freedom.
God does not want war but knows mankind will always be at war. He therefore outlines the behavior for this human condition but making sure that those impacted by this battle are given care He designs.
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