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(CHAPTER 21)
10. "When you go out [ki-theytze’] to battle against your enemies and YHWH your Elohim has given them into your hands, and you have taken them captive,
This refers to nations outside the Land of Israel, where captives may still be taken. (20:10-18) Unlike the men, virginal women are not killed because they do not carry the seed of the condemned people:
11. "if you have seen among the captives a woman of lovely form, and have a longing for her, and have taken her for yourself as a wife,
12. "then you may bring her inside your household, and she must shave her head and prepare her nails.
Prepare (literally, simply "do") her nails: This unusual practice may be symbolic, as with her hair, of putting off her uniqueness and individuality. Hairstyle and nails are a woman's point of pride, and also identified her as a member of her former culture, so she can now make a fresh start. In a way she is made to look like a baby again, since she was being "born again" as part of Israel. Like her nails, she will now reflect a different light. She is the one who shaves her own head, indicating that she could decide not to do so. If she says she will not do it, she forfeits the option of being his wife, and would revert to simply being his servant—or she could be sold to someone else. But if she decides to comply, she is under a new covering.
13. "Thus she will remove the resemblance of [the people from which] she was taken away, and remain in your house to mourn for her father and mother for a month of days; after that, yes, you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
Resemblance: from the word for "image"--clothing that conforms to the shape of one's body, and thus by extension, the garments by which she conformed to her former culture's standards, for she is now to be an Israelite. Taken away: or, of her captivity. Once one is part of free Israel, her former identity is only a vestige of having been captive to something else. A month: the symbol of renewal. She is humanely given time to grieve as she must, but after a set time, she must move on from whatever she was to the immense new task of learning to be an Israelite. This is also enough time for her, as a woman, to have even what was inside her body purged out. During this month, with her head shaved, she would not be very attractive to her new husband, who may not have relations with her until that month is over. By the time a month is up, she would have grown enough hair back to look somewhat feminine again. The Apostles also gave those returning to Israel from being scattered among the nations time to learn and absorb Moshe's teaching in the process of rejoining the commonwealth of Israel.
14. "But if it turns out that you are not pleased with her, you shall let her go free [if] her soul [wishes], but you may by no means sell her for money. You may not treat her like a slave, because you have humiliated her.
If she agreed to go through this process, yet you then find out that she snores, you no longer have a choice to tell her she is a slave again. You brought her into the house; you must take responsibility for her welfare. Let her go free: Aram., "release her to her own rights". She is not only free, but a free Israelite citizen. She has the same rights as any native-born Israelite woman. Humiliated: lowered her value in some people’s eyes; a woman rightfully married but no longer desired may not be as attractive to another man as a virgin, so she must be compensated for this loss of face.
15. "If a man has two wives, one loved and one less favored, and both the beloved one and the one less favored have borne him children, and if the firstborn was by the one less favored,
16. "then [this is how it] must be: when [it comes] time to divide his inheritance for his children, he is not permitted to give the son of the loved [wife] the right of the firstborn before the son of the less favored, [who is in fact] the firstborn.
Leah's firstborn Re’uven only forfeited his right to the position, and it devolved on Rachel's firstborn, because Re’uven took his father's concubine, thus damaging the relationship with his father too seriously to remain in a position of authority over the rest of his brothers. Less favored: literally, hated, but in such cases it must be understood in comparative terms.
17. "Rather, he shall recognize the son of the less favored [wife] by bestowing on him a double portion of all that he has, because he is the first of his generative power; the right of the firstborn is his.
Double portion: Thus this was not merely a custom, but a command. The added wealth is not so much to enrich him personally as to ensure that someone in the family—in particular, the one who will become the patriarch after his father’s death—will have enough resources to help anyone else in the family who encounters a crisis. First: or "best". You took his mother as a wife, so give her what she is due. Do not shortchange an innocent man; do what is right toward the Israelite that you do not particularly like. (v. 9)
18. "If a man has a son who is rebellious and grievously provokes him and will not obey his father's or mother's voice, and after they have disciplined him, will not listen to them,
This does not refer to a small child, but an adult of accountable age (by the Torah, 20 years)—who has had time to be disciplined (which in Hebrew means a “forceful turning or correcting”) and by now probably should not be living under his parents’ roof as a parasite, but taking responsibility for himself. Note that both parents have tried their different disciplinary styles, but he has refused to heed the rules. If he was undisciplined, it would be expecting a miracle to think he would not turn out to be arrogant and selfish. Rebellious: the same as “bitter” in Hebrew. This is not someone who only occasionally leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth, but someone who constantly has a bad attitude and makes life intolerable for his family.
19. "then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him to the elders of his city or the gates of his locality,
20. "and tell the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, and will not obey our voice; he is a squanderer and a drunkard.'
Since a son is one’s continuance, this would be a desperate measure. They must have exhausted their “wits” and resources to correct him; they are not saying, “Here, take care of my kid; I don’t know how.” The testimony of both parents is needed, but theirs alone. They brought him into existence; YHWH gives them the right to “recall” him as a last resort. His city: These are elders who know both him and his parents, being aware of his tendencies but also their shortcomings, and might be able to offer some additional solutions before they get to this irreversible option. A squanderer (or glutton) and a drunkard: one who is “spoiled”--so lavish with things that he acts as if they have no value, since he himself is proving worthless. He is “eating them out of house and home”, taking more than his share of the food the rest of the family needs but not pulling his weight--both putting them in jeopardy and giving them nothing back for all they have invested in him. This is the accusation some tried to level against Yeshua (Mat. 11:19), using this “code name” for a rebel, thus saying he should be stoned to death because he would not submit to some of the rabbinic customs of his day. However, he echoed Proverbs 8 by calling wisdom his mother (Luke 7:31-35), against whom he was thus NOT rebelling. He also proved that his accusers were acting like immature children, finding something wrong with him whether what he did seemed positive or negative. Thus neither wisdom nor his Father would testify against him. (Yochanan 5:37) We may call YHWH “Father” as well, but we have a mother too—the Torah; likewise if one only follows the Torah’s strict legal interpretation without the love in our Abba’s voice, we are out of balance as well.
21. "Then all the men of the city shall pelt him with stones, so that he dies, and thus you shall purge out the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and be afraid.
YHWH mercifully allows the parents not to have to be the ones to cast the first stone in this case, and both of them must agree to it, and the local elders would probably be his own uncles and cousins anyway. If he does listen to one parent but not the other, he might be beaten but not killed. One who respects neither (provided these are Torah-honoring parents) is worthy of death, for he has brought them shame. Building-stones: the community is actually built up by this seeming act of destruction, because it is purified. Stones are one thing that cannot be ritually defiled, and the words for “sons” and “stones” are related in Hebrew. The word for “stones” is related to the term for “building”, indicating that they would be big enough to use to build a house with, and thus effective in killing him quickly. The pile of stones left over him would look like a house in ruins, which is exactly what he was causing. Be afraid: also, learn respect--the very thing which was missing in the rebellious son. Just the fact that this is permissible in Israel’s law should be a strong enough deterrent, and the rabbis say that this never actually had to be carried out, and no recorded case has been found in which this command had to be obeyed. The severity of the sentence itself has apparently been sufficient deterrent.But no option is given for them to simply cast him out, for if he remained in the same community he would bring the same grief to his other relatives, and if merely banished from his town, he would not only bring a bad reputation to his family and community, but would also end up causing the same problems for others wherever else he went.
22. "Also, if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he has been executed, and you hang his body on a tree,
23. "his body may not remain on the tree all night. Rather, you must by all means bury him that [same] day (since whoever is hanged is cursed by Elohim), so that your land, which YHWH is giving you for an inheritance, will not be defiled.
This is why Yosef of Ramathayim obtained permission to take Yeshua's body off the crucifixion pole before sunset, especially when the next day was a festival high day (Yochanan 19:31ff) “Accursed” means "vilified" or, literally, "treated lightly"--the picture of hanging off the ground versus one "carrying weight" with YHWH being buried underground. This is the extent of indignity to which Yeshua was willing to submit to allow his Father to gain His other sons back. But the idea here seems to be more that one is executed first, then hung up for public display as a sobering warning to others. However, one can become desensitized to the shock of such a spectacle, to the point that it no longer repulses us, and this might occur if the body remains there too long. People would start taking pictures posed next to it and mocking it. YHWH does not wish to hurt the family of the executed man in this way, for He is not cruel. Even those deserving of death in Israel must still receive a decent and timely burial, with a few notable exceptions of people so wicked that the dogs were allowed to eat their bodies. The rabbis say the greatest display of love one can show is to bury someone, since he cannot repay him for all the expenses involved and even after that, make sure his grave is never defiled.
CHAPTER 22
1. "You must not see your fellow tribesman's ox or lamb being driven away and ignore them. You must by all means return them to your brother.
Fellow tribesman: literally, brother, but in the extended sense so common in Middle Eastern languages. (v. 2) An ox and a lamb are animals YHWH accepts on His altar so that people may draw near to Him, re-establishing or strengthening the relationship, and here they have been chased away from their masters. There are drawing-near “offerings” prescribed for every festival and Sabbath, yet even those who have recovered the true festival calendar all too often still see them as a “sacrifice”: I have to give up my Saturday for YHWH; I have to use all my vacation time at the feasts, etc. Rather, we should look at it as letting something go in order to come closer to YHWH. It is easy to see why someone would come to the sanctuary if he has sinned, but if he is not coming to cleanse his conscience, why would anyone bring an offering there? Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) 5:1 tells us we are meant to draw near in order to hear, not rashly or hastily trying to talk our way in. Except for confession, our words must be few (described in Hoshea 14:2 as the “calves of our lips”) letting our actions speak for themselves. He does not want us to draw near with our mouths when our hearts are far from Him (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 29:13-14); that only wastes an animal. Fools are known for their many words, even in prayer. (Mat. 6:7) The Torah has a purpose, and if we use its commands for some other purpose—even if it is just doing what someone told us we were supposed to do—we will miss the point. When we show Him that we have indeed heard what He said before, we are in a position to hear more from Him. Nowadays we have no place to make such slaughters to YHWH, but we can let go of things, thought patterns, priorities, or men’s morality in order to be near Him. These animals are usually part of a herd or flock, so seeing them wandering alone would clue us in to the fact that they are lost. How much more are we responsible to return those of YHWH’s flock who are lost, without a shepherd? (Yirmeyahu 50:6) Being driven away: Hebrew, nadakh. This does not appear to be an animal that escapes on its own or wanders away, but rather one that someone has let loose, expelled, or led away, probably for some malicious reason, or possibly due to the owner’s own anger at it. (There would be a different set of rules for one which was being stolen.) Every festival, Sabbath, and New Moon has its particular offerings, and each is meant to teach us something. They are all times to hear. Christianity and Judaism have both “driven away” the things He will accept on His altar, for both have said animal sacrifice is no longer necessary (though their reasons are different). Men’s commands have told us not to celebrate the Passover or to forsake the Sabbath–the very times when we can draw nearest on YHWH’s terms. We must return these potential “drawings near” of which our brothers have been deprived. If they themselves have “driven them away”, they may be angry when we bring to their attention the “animal” they have lost, but we do not get to ignore them—or, literally, "hide yourself from them”. We cannot pretend we did not see. We cannot wait until a wolf starts to eat the lost sheep to decide to do something about the fact that it is loose. We are not permitted to just mind our own business, but must expose ourselves to whatever difficulties or dangers are involved in the confrontation. The fact that we also fall short never gives us an excuse not to restore one who is overtaken in an error, because if their “donkey” cannot get up, it will die beneath the load. So we must deal with the speck of dust in our own eye quickly and get to the other task as rapidly as possible, for when a brother has gone astray, it is in season to act; we do not have the luxury of waiting until Yom Kippur to repent. Powers of persuasion will not suffice; we need a thorough knowledge and understanding of Torah, so that when we do expose ourselves to it we will still be protected. Many may not wish to return, and we have a limited degree of influence over others’ decisions, but the command is to do all you can.
2. "And if your fellow tribesman is not close to you, or you do not know [whose] it [is], you must bring it into your own household, and it must [remain] with you until your countryman comes looking for it, and then you must return it to him.
No “finders keepers” excuse here. Do not know whose it is: If we are not close to the owner either physically or relationally, but we know the animal has been driven away, our responsibility is to gather it into our own house. He may not know we exist, but we have his animal, and must keep it until he shows up. How do we find what our brothers have lost? Through studying Torah and recognizing all these means of returning to YHWH. Return them to those you know, and keep them safe for those we do not yet know. Until he comes looking, provide basic care for the possession he lost, and make sure it is in suitable condition when he does come looking for it. You may not use it for your own purpose while you wait for him to come looking for it, for that is a form of stealing. Take care of it as if it were your own and return it to him as soon as you know whose it is, even if it belonged to your personal enemy. (Ex. 23:4) Stay prepared to tell him how to draw near to YHWH, so that when he does want to know, the information is ready. He does not say we should go looking for our distant cousins who lost their property, though there must have been an effective network of information that would enable “finders” to make known what they had found so that the “losers” would have a clue where to search. We do not have to post notices or take out an ad in the newspaper, but we must have it in the house. This requires that we have a house to gather it into so there is a place for them to seek their “animals”. This is yet another reason we need Israelite communities. As our light shines like a city set on a hill, those who are seeking truth can find us. We receive many treasures from YHWH’s word which we ourselves may never be able to use, but we need to store them up for others who will need them. Once we know who our true fellow Israelites are, we need to restore their lost heritage to them, even if they don’t realize they have lost it. We are indeed our brothers' "keepers”.
3. "You must treat his donkey the same way, and do the same for his clothing or for any missing item that your brother has lost and you have found; you cannot conceal yourself.
A donkey is not only not an altar animal, but an unclean beast, but it can be redeemed by a lamb. (Ex. 13:11ff) This is the only unclean animal we are told can be redeemed. (A dog cannot be, per 23:18) It is stiff-necked, a picture of looking only at our own interests, not those of our brothers on our right or left. This is probably why YHWH made this animal redeemable, because Israel is “stiff-necked” too. But stubbornness can be redeemed--put to a positive use as we retain our determination to recognize our selfish thoughts and turn them into more loving ones that serve one another. A lamb is a herd animal, and that is what we are redeemed by: being actively involved with other Israelites loosens our necks to be able to look at our brothers and sisters. Becoming part of a flock ensures that all of our interests will be common ones rather than selfish ones. After he has sold himself into slavery to avoid starving when a debt cannot be paid, an Israelite can only be redeemed by a kinsman. There was no one in Israel suited to the task, so our brother from Yehudah—a more distant kinsman--did the job. Y’shua is a physical, not merely spiritual, relative; we have the same ancestor, Yaaqov. We need to look at him in this light--as the only kinsman willing to lose his own inheritance for the sake of his brothers, the lost sheep—or in this case, “the lost donkeys of the House of Israel”! It is exciting to find kinsmen in Yehudah today willing to reach out to their lost brothers, but they still usually want to convert us; to find someone who did it according to Torah is truly amazing. His clothing: Heb., simlah—“what resembles”, i.e., the type of clothing that takes the shape of a person, thus the inner garments--one’s most basic covering. It is surprising that someone could lose his undergarment, but it is a big problem. So many think they are Christians, and wear outer garments that resemble the nations, never looking in the mirror of the Torah to see who they really resemble, and therefore do not realize that they are really Israelites. It is one of life’s greatest blessings to learn who we really are, and where we belong, because our garments are what cover us. We need to return our brothers’ identity to them, whether they are already here or when they come looking.
4. "If you see your countryman's donkey or ox fall down along the road, you must not ignore them; you must by all means [help] them up.
It is even acceptable to do this on the Sabbath (Luke 14:5), since life is the purpose behind the details of the Torah. A donkey and ox can both plow and can both carry great burdens—just not the same ones at the same time (v. 10). Paul says that restoring those brothers who fall and bearing one another’s burdens fulfill the “instruction (torah) of the Messiah”. (Gal. 6:1ff) What is his Torah? This verse is the foundation for that interpretation, so Yeshua’s Torah is the same as Moshe’s.
5. "Masculine gear must not come to be upon a woman, nor may a strong man put on the resemblance of a woman's shape, because whoever does [this] is disgusting to YHWH.
This probably includes transvestitism, but it goes further; the Aramaic targum interprets “masculine gear” as a warrior's weapon, borne out by the fact that “gear” or “vessels” differ from garments in Exodus 3:22. We must remember that modern clothing differs from ancient, when no one literally “wore the pants” and everyone wore what we would consider “dresses”, so we must limit our interpretation to things that clearly mark one as male or female. The literal rendering is “A woman shall not put on the likeness of strength, nor shall a woman have a strong vessel.” This is Shim'on Kefa/Peter's basis for calling a woman "the weaker vessel" (1 Kefa 3:7) and telling her to trust her husband, for he is to show her honor as well. Neither is inferior in value, but neither is meant to try to be the other. The man must not burden his wife with his own responsibilities, since she is not expected to be able to “contain” as much, just as one would not put a watermelon in a plastic shopping bag. Nor must he be submissive to her. This is a reminder for the husband to take up his place as the strong leader so the wife is not tempted to, since someone must do so. She is not to be a pushover, nor is he to be a brute, but the man, as head, is responsible to ensure that all in his household are seeking and approaching YHWH.
6. "If you come across a bird's nest in front of you on the road, in any tree, or on the ground, [with] hatchlings or eggs, and the mother is sitting on the hatchlings or eggs, you may not take the mother along with the young;
YHWH wants us to have compassion even on animals, as seen in verse 4. Bird: small bird or fowl: tsippor, from a word meaning "to depart early", so the "early bird" is actually a Hebrew concept! Esau’s homeland is described as his “nest” in Ovadyah 4, so Israel’s “nest” must be our Land. Some of the children may depart, but the “mother land” must remain intact so there is something for the exiles to return to:
7. "you must by all means let the mother go free, and may take the young for yourself, so that it may go well with you and you may prolong [your] days.
Prolong your days: i.e., you will not just have a feast today, but you will have something to eat again tomorrow, since you still have the source of the eggs. As long as there is a mother, there can be more young. Though the mother would make a better meal, any other remaining young would die if the mother was taken instead, and this would be cruel. This command parallels that of not boiling a kid in its mother's milk, because the whole lineage would be destroyed that way. But it is not just about being kind to the bird; if we end their hope, it would also eradicate the hope of our posterity continuing to have food from that source. So this is also about the relationship of parents to children. It literally only says "take", and mentions nothing overtly about eating it (though that is implied). So we must look deeper: When today’s true evangelist "hunts out" who is meant to take his place as Israel, he must bring only those who are teachable; those who are "dyed in the wool" and will not allow themselves to be changed, must be left. The phrase “prolong your days” is often used in connection with the Land of Israel (30:20; Ex. 20:12; et al), which makes requirements of us. (Lev. 18:28; 20:22) YHWH is like a mother bird (32:10-11) who flutters over her young, creating a wind current so they to will begin to flap their wings and prepare to fly, so they will not remain immature in the nest and thus become breakfast for or captive to whomever may walk by.
8. "When you build a new house, you must also make a safety railing for your roof, so that you do not bring blood [guilt] upon your household if someone falls from it.
Flat roofs are common in the Middle East, where it seldom snows. They serve the purpose of a patio. People often spend leisure time there, dry clothes or grain there, have social interaction from roof to roof, or even sleep there when it is hot inside the house. People are expected to be in this precarious position, so YHWH considers it negligence to take no precautions against accidents with a parapet or restraining wall. When we build a house, we must do so with others in mind. A home is to be a place of refuge and hospitality, not just comfort. As Lot knew, we are responsible to protect any who come under our roof—or atop our roof! Anticipating what could be dangerous to our fellows is true “religion” in YHWH’s eyes.
9. "You may not sow your vineyard with mixed kinds of seed, so that neither the fullness of your produce that you have sown nor the produce of your vineyard will become forbidden.
The parallel passage in regard to fields (Lev. 19:19) pertains to not mixing wheat with the less-valued barley, lest they all be sold at the same price, thus cheating the buyer in some cases. (Nehemia Gordon) Mixed kinds of seed: literally, from two separate sources. Usually only a few types of grape thrive in any given area, and just because one can engineer a hybdrid product does not mean it is profitable. Priestly vintner Gershon Ferency noted that some types of grapes are more suited for eating, while others are better for making wine, but to mix the two might end up with something ruined for either purpose. Hebraically, wine, the product of a vineyard, is symbolic of joy. (Psalm 104:15) The things that gladden us are not to come from two different sources, as Christianity does. We are commanded to receive our joy from YHWH’s festivals (16:14; Lev. 23:40), eating before YHWH in the Temple (12:5ff), the fact that YHWH can be trusted (Psalm 5:11), and when He rescues the exiles. (Psalm 14:7) So these are the kinds of seed we are to plant. We must sow His field with things of His Kingdom, not of selfishness, being content to do things His way instead of our own. Thrill in the beauties of His creation, but when reveling in a view of the mountains, think also of the mountains where He has met His people. Rejoice in political freedom, but not only so you can become personally wealthy, but so that Efrayim can be gathered. Forbidden: literally "set apart", probably in the sense of becoming considered the new standard, for the world’s purpose is to get everyone into one easy creed that everyone can like, but once this has become the preference, it is hard to find the original—and hybrids usually do not reproduce well. (Hirsch renders it "kinds which are closed to each other".) Mixing theologies obscures the truth. (Yirmeyahu 2:21-23) Hirsch points out that "if something was planted or sown, and afterwards other plants or seeds are wrongfully planted there, then what was originally planted or sown remains allowed to be used, and only the additional or subsequent growth is prohibited." The true apostolic doctrine was sown throughout the world before the enemy sowed the tares. Once we realign with that, we will be fit for the Master's consumption. When the holy seed was intermingled with the people of Kanaan (Ezra 9:2; 10:3), if the wives had allowed themselves to become Israelite, it would not have been a problem. But since they tried to retain their old identity (as in 21:10ff), they and their offspring had to be take out of the way.
10. "You must not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
Indeed, you cannot! The root word for "ox" is "traveller"--one that moves on, while a donkey typically digs in its heels unless coerced by a reward. This is another forbidden mixture, and is the basis for Paul's order not to be "unequally yoked" with unbelievers. (2 Cor. 6:14) The ox is a clean animal; the donkey is not. The ox is the highest form of offering, while a donkey, though strong, useful, and redeemable, cannot be offered on His altar. It offers less to Him. It is common to yoke a seasoned plow-ox and a novice together so that the one can train the other, but two different types of animals will want to move at a different pace, and are likely to start moving in a circle instead of a straight path. The term for "mixed kinds" (vv. 9, 11) can apply to animals or fabrics as well. The point of them all is to teach us about how to live: "How can two walk together unless they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3)
11. "You may not wear a garment of mixed fabric--wool and linen together.
The two will react differently to washing, etc., like the new patch that will shrink away from the worn-out wineskin in Y’shua's analogy. But wool is an animal fabric, from something living and breathing, while linen is from a vegetable, from the earth. This reminds us of Qayin, who brought an offering that was the work of his hands, the produce of earth. Hevel (Abel) brought a living being with blood, which represents a gift from heaven, since life is attributable only to YHWH. Likewise we are forbidden to mix a type of worship appointed by heaven with that which originates from men. Get your covering from one or the other, not both.
12. "You must make for yourself tassels on the four corners of the vesture with which you cover [yourself].
Tassels: "twisted fringes", from a word for “enlarging”, so they must somehow make our garment longer. Elsewhere they are called tsitsiyoth--something to look at and notice so that you will remember who--and whose--you are. It must include a thread of blue in it. (Num. 15:38) There is much argument over the source of the dye, but the Hebrew term is based on the color, not the source. The important thing is that the blue not be left out. Corners: literally, "wings", which is why the woman with an issue of blood wanted to touch the "hem" of the garment of Y’shua, in whose “wings” she knew there would be healing. (Mal’akhi 4:2) The vesture here is the outer garment; the tassels are not to be hidden (Ex. 22:26) like the candle under a basket. A different term for an outer garment is used in Numbers 15, but neither uses the term from v. 5 that refers to an undergarment, though this has become common practice. Both terms refer to something that conceals the body, and likewise, when we are dressed according to His commands, our own selfish ways will be suppressed and not as able to influence others.
13. "If any man should take a wife and go in to her, then despise her,
14. "and bring a fabricated case against her and bring about an evil reputation for her, declaring, ‘I took this woman and when I came near her, I discovered that she was not a virgin!'
15. "Then the girl's father and mother shall fetch and bring forward the tokens of the girl's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate,
Tokens: per v. 17, the sheet with blood on it from the wedding night. One might find it embarrassing to keep such a “souvenir”, but if we expect it to ever be disputed, it is important to keep it as evidence rather than discarding it.
16. "and the girl's father shall tell the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, and he despises her!'
The evidence proves that the husband was only looking for an excuse to be rid of her.
17. "‘And, here, he has brought a fabricated case against her, saying, "I didn't find in your daughter the evidence of virginity." But here are the tokens of my daughter's virginity!' And they shall open up the cloth in the presence of the elders of the city.
18. "Then the elders of the city will take that man out and chastise him,
Chastise: teach by beating. This is what David meant when he said, ‘Let the righteous heap blows on me." (Ps. 141:5) I.e., "Do whatever it takes to make me righteous as well."
19. "and fine him a hundred sheqels of silver, and give it to the girl's father, because he has brought a bad reputation upon a virgin of Israel. Then she must become his wife, and he may not divorce her all the days of his [life].
The father, not the daughter, gets the money, because it is his honor that has been threatened. He is the one who sought out a husband for her, though the father would hold it, like a dowry, as “insurance” in case she were to ever become a widow (or, in other cases, a divorcée). It should be more than a business deal; the Biblical ideal is that the husband and wife should treasure each other. YHWH promised to rebuild the virginity of Israel (Yirm./Jer. 31:4). It is Y’shua's blood that serves as the evidence (cf. v. 17), for he is our kinsman (blood relative) and can thus redeem us. But the proof is also in whom we are treating as our Husband now. May not divorce her: A man who would do such a thing to his wife should end up “hen-pecked”.
20. "However, if this accusation is true, and tokens of the girl's virginity are no[where] to be found,
21. "then they shall bring the girl to the door of her father's house, and the men of the city shall pelt her with stones until she dies, because she has brought about a disgraceful folly in Israel--committing fornication [while] in her father's household; this way you shall purge out the evil from among yourselves.
How important, then, that parents not allow their virgin daughter to ride a horse or camel in such a way as could tear the hymen prematurely and render this type of token impossible, and, most importantly, make sure she is honest with them. At the very least, if she is not a virgin when being betrothed, she must not pretend that she is, because it could spell her death one day. A daughter must be more concerned for her father’s honor than for her own pleasure, for whatever she does reflects on the one from whom she came. A tree is known by its fruit. There remains no protection in the household for those who live the opposite way from what they were taught. Purge: literally, "burn". This behooves us to keep our daughters out of situations where they are likely to become impure!
22. "If a man is discovered [to be] lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die: the man who lay with the woman, and the woman [herself]. This way you shall purge wickedness from Israel.
Y’shua was tested by having a woman caught in this act brought to him for a verdict (Yochanan 8), but since the man was not brought (possibly even one of the accusers themselves), the case was invalid, and so he used it as evidence against the accusers, just as in the prior case here. Also, this defines adultery as only involving a married woman. If the man is married, but the paramour is not, this is not technically adultery; she would be considered his concubine, and this is not forbidden, though not encouraged either.
23. "If a young virgin girl is betrothed to a husband, and a man comes up to her in the city and lies with her,
Betrothed: engaged, but with a stronger legal contract than in modern culture. The bond is seen as if completely enacted, since it has already been promised, and Torah sees the deal as done once it is agreed upon (as verse 24 calls her his wife). Stealing someone else’s fiancée is the theme of many stories in Western culture, but betrothal is considered the first stage of actual marriage in Israel, so this counts as adultery; she already had the same legal obligations to him as if the consummation had also taken place.
24. "then you shall bring both of them out to the gate of that city and pelt them with stones so that they die: the girl, on account of the fact that she did not call out for help, [being, after all] in the city, and the man, on account of the fact that he has humiliated his fellow citizen's wife. This way you shall purge away the evil from among yourselves.
If she did scream in the city, someone would certainly hear her. If she did not, it implies her consent. Fighting off an attacker is much easier in the context of a community. The sentence is very clear, leaving no room for law suits or messy divorces. People will tend to avoid doing what they know will incur the death penalty.
25. "However, if a man comes upon a betrothed girl in the open country, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man that lay with her must die,
26. "while to the girl you shall do nothing, because there is no sin [worthy] of death in the girl, because this case is just the same as when as a man rises up against his fellow citizen and murders him,
27. "because he met up with her in the open field, and the betrothed girl cried out for help, but there was no one to rescue her.
Open field: Yeshua likens the whole world to a field, a place outside the protection of the community based on YHWH's instruction, where there is justice available for the needy. As in v. 24, this emphasizes the importance of her actually calling out for help, even if she seems to be in a place where no help is available (and unless she was complicit, screaming would come more naturally to a woman), and of parents doing all they can to avoid letting their daughters be in such a vulnerable position.
28. "If a man comes up to a virgin girl who is not betrothed, and takes hold of her and lies with her, and they are discovered,
29. "then the man who lay with her shall give the girl's father fifty [sheqels] of silver, and she shall become his wife; since he has humiliated her, he cannot divorce her all the days of his [life].
This is not adultery; he has simply taken a wife, though without betrothal and in a way that brings shame to his parents and hers. Thus the penalty is not as stiff as in v. 19. But although he has made this all-important choice in a fit of passion, he is still responsible, and must live with this intemperance all his life. He has no right to complain about her like the man in v. 13ff, since her parents may not have been able to save the token of her virginity (as in v. 15). His payment is a public record that this woman is vindicated and can move on past her shame and be a vital functioning part of the community (as he can too, if he remains faithful).
30. [23:1 in Hebrew] "A man shall not take his father's wife [to bed], so as not to uncover his father's skirt.
Re’uven was guilty of this, and it cost him not only his birthright privileges, but more importantly, his relationship with his father Yaaqov, who from then on had nothing positive to say about him. Skirt: Aramaic, "his father's shame". But the word is actually "wing" or "corner"--the same word used in verse 12, which is one reason the tzitziyoth were to be placed just there (Numbers 15:39)--to remind men not to stray in this particular way. This whole chapter underlines again that we are expected to be a responsible people, not those who close our eyes and do not want to get involved. We cannot go to sleep on our watch. We are certainly responsible for ourselves, but also for our neighbors. While we can only practice a limited form of these social laws that define Israel in our present context, we must move as far as we can in the principles they exemplify, watching out for one another. The further we try to walk in YHWH’s Word, the more He will enable us to carry out, and the readier we will be to fit into the framework of the Kingdom when it fully arrives. Being part of a like-minded group can speed up the process.
CHAPTER 23
1. "No one who has his genitals wounded, crushed, or cut off may enter YHWH’s ruling council.
Cut off: or "severed". This would appear to include a vasectomy. Cut off: or "severed". This would appear to include a vasectomy. Cut off: or "severed". This would appear to include a vasectomy. Ruling council: Heb., qahal, the decision-making, land-owning group that voted and judged, as opposed to adat, the larger congregation that would assemble on the Sabbath and festivals. (Jodell Onstott) YHWH would not exclude from that group any who cannot actively defile others, but those who rule the nation, or even a city, are held to a higher standard. (See notes on Num. 10:2, 7) If one puts away his fruitfulness, especially intentionally, he loses his standing in Israel. Why would anyone do this? It was a common practice to emasculate men who were chosen to care for harems, and even men in a king’s court who needed to be trusted to deal with numerous women, to the point that “eunuch” came to be an idiom for any court official in many Gentile settings. Sacrificing one’s own fertility for the sake of his crops’ fertility was also a common practice among pagans, which in a modified way was brought into the Church through the requirement of celibacy for priests and castration of choir boys who could sing very high notes so that they would not experience puberty and have their voices change, since for centuries choirs consisted of only males. A priest in Israel may not deliberately prevent procreation (permanently). The penalty for deliberately causing this condition in another—or trying to--is severe (25:11-12) because seed is the way YHWH chose for men to bear fruit, all the way back at creation; the very first command He ever gave to human beings was to be fruitful and multiply. (Gen. 1:11-26) So such a prohibition as this is not cruel; the picture is simply too far out of line. Efrayim means "doubly fruitful", which he must be as he returns to his Land. Not that the person who is born a eunuch or forced to be so by others is despised by YHWH. (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 56:3) But one who has chosen to render himself incapable of obeying the command--who chooses to have no seed--is counted as dead already. Of course, the concept goes far beyond physical reproduction. Propagating ourselves is just the beginning; we also need to raise our children to be fruitful by planting the “seeds” of the Kingdom in them by teaching what we know and understand. (Mat. 13:22) We multiply our wisdom and dedication by planting it in the fertile ground of others who are ready to learn and bear more fruit, even if one seed is all we have. If we are not planting what we know into others, our voice will be silenced and we will leave no legacy.
2. "An illegitimate child may not enter YHWH’s ruling council; all [the way down] to his tenth generation he may not enter YHWH’s ruling council.
After speaking about one who bears no fruit, the Torah goes on to speak of those who bear bad fruit. Illegitimate: Not the modern definition of someone whose parents are not married, or the result of mere fornication as in 22:29, for the union itself constitutes a marriage of sorts; it is unwise, but does not fall into this category. What is referred to here is one born of any marriage forbidden by Torah, which can never be made legal, e.g., the result of adultery (sex involving a woman married to someone else), incest (a father lying with his daughter, etc.), a priest marrying outside of Israel, or marriage to one who remains a pagan rather than becoming part of Israel. This was the case with many whom the exiles returning from Bavel married, so they had to divorce not only their wives but the children they bore. (Ezra 10:2-11) What is illegitimate is actually the union that produced the child, not the child himself, but he is not allowed in the assembly because this would indicate that an Israelite could get away with being intimate with the wrong things. This command is specifically for those seeking entrance into Israel, but since it is forbidden for a man to take his son's wife (Lev. 18:15), it may be that the offspring of Yehudah through Thamar (Gen. 38) could not fulfill the royal position promised to them until the tenth generation, though Thamar was clearly no longer a pagan. David was the tenth generation, so only until he was ready could the king come from another tribe, as with Sha'ul. But on a deeper level, all of YHWH’s people have been in illegal relationships. He did the hard thing, too, and sent us away. But this we can do something to change. When we learn to walk as a nation, we can have a bride fit to marry Him again, and the illegitimacy can go away since we can be called “children of the Living Elohim” again (Hos. 2:16-23; 3:5), when we prove our parenthood by loving one another.
3. "Neither an Ammonite nor Moavite may enter YHWH’s ruling council; not even down to their tenth generation may they enter YHWH’s ruling council, perpetually,
Council: the political decision-making body of citizens. (See notes on Numbers 10:2,7) This is not a racist concept; the general ban on prohibits foreigners with very different values (v. 4) from infiltrating and becoming influential in the nation’s culture and direction. A lack of hospitality (v. 4) is too much of a threat to what YHWH wants Israel to be. Other immigrants, from allied nations (v. 8), could become voting members of Israel after their family was part of the nation long enough to deter the sedition of spies pretending to be citizens but having their primary loyalty elsewhere. (Onstott) This would not apply to non-landowning women like Ruth, but Ruth 1:22 also says she "returned" to Beyth Lehem, suggesting that she may have been the descendant of an exiled Jew rather than a true Moavitess. (1 Chron. 4:22 even suggests that if Ruth was of royal Moavite lineage, she may have been from the stock of Yehudah after all, from a much earlier ancestor; in any case, by the time Boaz married her, she was fully living as an Israelite, for she had made the commitment to do so, just as Rahav and Thamar had put away their foreignness.) Perpetually: This is different from the prohibition in v. 2; Ammonites and Moavites as whole nations were indeed born of incest. (Gen. 19) They can never be Israelites. But why?
4. "because they did not come out before you with bread and water on the journey when you came out from Egypt, and because they hired Bilaam the son of Be'or from P’thor of Aram-Naharayim against you, in order to curse you.
Two simple acts had eternal ramifications! They are unforgiveable. But notice the priority YHWH gives to their errors. We might think it is worse to curse someone, but in YHWH’s eyes, the former was even worse, for, being relatives of Avraham and even children of Lot himself, they were expected to be more hospitable, especially to their relatives. They should have been celebrating the fact that their cousins had just gotten “out of prison”. They were expected to not just offer bread and water when asked for it, but be there waiting with it, having preceded them to the meeting point. But like the prodigal son’s brother, they instead felt threatened, thinking Israel wanted to take something from them. Unlike Bilaam, Moav and Ammon did not understand who Israel was, and it would only be detrimental to those within Israel to open our heart to them, because they would only abuse it. They were not interested in even hearing where we were coming from, so it is not fair to Israel to let the balance of indebtedness keep piling up on only one side. YHWH does not invite them into His Home either.
5. ("However, YHWH your Elohim would not listen to Bilaam; rather, YHWH your Elohim turned the curse into a blessing for you, because YHWH your Elohim loved you.)
“A curse without a cause will not alight”. (Prov. 26:2) And we are told that YHWH “makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He restrains.” (Psalm 76:10) As our Father, He filters all that comes toward us, and only allows negative things to touch us if they will help us, not because an enemy wants to perpetrate them. He may spank His children, but no one else may.
6. "You shall not ask [YHWH] for their welfare or prosperity for all your days, forever.
We do not need to be at peace with those who are only out for themselves and do not offer instruction or community to Israel. Forever: being illegitimate children, their exclusion lasted ten generations (v. 3), but because of the other two offenses (v. 4), it was extended into perpetuity.
7. "You shall not abhor an Edomite, because he is your relative; nor shall you abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.
Sojourner: or guest. Though it was also not hospitable, Edom is a much closer relative than Lot’s illegitimate children, and did receive some limited blessing from Yitzhaq. The first Pharaoh who dealt with Yosef is rewarded for his hospitality, despite what came later in Egypt’s history. We need not become best friends with these people, but do need to provide them with bread and water when they come down the road, for the Egyptians parallel the Church at large, who did provide most of us with refuge in a time of need, and the Edomites parallel the masses who are enslaved by the Church but are actually kindred with Israel, for Israel will one day take possession of a remnant of them (Amos 9).
8. "The descendants to which they give birth may enter YHWH’s ruling council in their third generation.
They can sojourn with Israel before that, but would not have the same rights as a native Israelite until they have become enculturated enough into Torah to be considered for leadership roles. One would need to want to be Israelite very badly to have to wait so many years for all the benefits to kick in for his posterity! May we all be so willing!
9. "[Even] when you go out [and] camp against your enemies, guard yourself from every evil matter:
The same rules that apply in the camp of all Israel also apply in a war camp. Evil matters may include coveting beautiful plunder you may see when conquering a city YHWH has said to devote to destruction: the whole nation suffered because Akhan did not so guard himself. (Y'hoshua 7:1ff) The call of Yom T’ruah (the day of trumpet-blasts) is to attack, but it also means to defend our gates--which include any entry an enemy could gain into the camp through places we leave undefended. Enemies: not just those who hate us, but those who oppose our following YHWH in any way, even if they simply want to spare us the pain of dying to self. Our own families are the most likely to be inadvertently hostile to His will in this way. (Luke 14:25) Enemies within Israel might be people of other sects, with whom we disagree about major ideas, but who are our brothers nonetheless. So be neither malicious to them nor naïve; guarding yourself and strengthening yourself to do your job no matter what they say (for “matter” here literally means “word”; their words could discourage us, plant doubt in our minds, or lead us into invalid guilt trips).
10. "If there is among you a man who is not ritually clean, due to an encounter at night, then he must go out to the outside of the camp; he may not enter into the camp.
Encounter: with the sense of being unexpected or even an accident, but which nonetheless defiles him—either a nocturnal emission or, in the dark, bumping into something or someone else that renders him ritually impure. The reason he goes is not to sulk, but because there is a certain amount of time before ritual defilement can pass from you. Ritual uncleanness is a picture of selfishness, which is harmful to the others inside the camp. Indeed, it is the reason that we do not have a camp today. Even if we are in the very midst of the camp, if we are all about self instead of the others in the camp, we are really still outside. Go outside right away so you can return sooner and so you will not affect anyone else with whatever you have rubbed up against.
11. "But when evening approaches, he must bathe himself with water, and when the sun is gone, he may enter the camp [again].
Evening means a new day (Gen. 1:5) We must not bring our selfishness into it. Deal with it before today ends. The surest path to becoming clean is to wash ourselves in the “water” of the Torah (Ephesians 5:26), and get rid of our selfishness by making things right with whomever we have hurt.
12. "You must also have a designated area [marked out] in the outer part of the camp, and you must go out there,
13. "and you must have a sharp tool among your equipment, and when you sit down out [there], you can dig with it, then turn around and cover up what comes out of you,
Sharp tool: LXX, "spade" or "trowel"; the Hebrew word is the same as for the hooks or spikes attached to a wall, on which objects can then be hung. What comes out of you: i.e., excrement. The point is that we are responsible and must be prepared to clean up the messes we make, not bring them inside the camp.
14. "because YHWH your Elohim walks about in the nearest part of your camp to rescue you and deliver up your enemies in front of you. Therefore your camp must be dedicated [to purity], so that He will see no shameful thing exposed among you and turn away from having your back.
Rescue: literally, snatch away; i.e., He is right nearby so His deliverance can be swift. But He does not want to “foul His feet” with anything that should not be there. Having your back: literally, being behind you: i.e., in support of you. Keep the camp set apart, getting whatever help you need from others to do so.
15. "You must not turn over to his master a slave who has escaped to you from his master;
Turn over: Hirsch, "extradite". We escaped from Pharaoh, and YHWH harbored us, as 24:18, 22 repeats; we must do for others what has been done for us. This is about slaves from other nations who come as refugees to Israel. Chapter 22 teaches us to return to our fellow Israelite whatever he loses, which may be why Paul urged Onesimus to return to his master, whom Paul considered his fellow. (All Israelite slaves had it better than slaves anywhere else, with one day in seven off and the requirement that they be permitted to participate in every festival.)
16. "he may live with you--right in your midst--in whatever place he chooses, in whichever of your gated cities is most pleasing to him; you must not expel him.
Most pleasing: or best, appropriate. He can be a member of whatever tribe he fits best with. Expel: or oppress. An Israelite slave would need to return to his own tribe when the time for his release comes.
17. "There may be no [cult] prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite among the sons of Israel.
Sodomite: or male cult prostitute; both it and "prostitute" here literally read "holy person"--one set apart, but to the wrong things, dedicated wholly to worship in pagan temples, which involved sexual rituals. The LXX calls the second merely a "fornicator", but adds another meaning, an "idolatress", for the two concepts are linked in Hebrew. There are to be no sexual rites in Israelite worship. This is why Paul forbade a certain hairstyle. (1 Cor. 11:6) It was one that marked a man as one of these male cult prostitutes (which serviced men, not women, though the sons of Eli the high priest tried to turn the concept more to their liking). This is probably why Y’hezq’el requires Israelite priests to keep their hair cut back to a particular length.
18. "You shall not bring the hire-price of a prostitute or the sale price of a dog into the house of YHWH your Elohim for any votive offering, because both of these are indeed disgusting to YHWH your Elohim.
Sale price of a dog: interpreted in Aramaic as "the exchange for a dog", i.e., an animal that was acceptable for sacrifice, for which a dog had been traded. This is one way in which YHWH does not allow us to be generous; Y’shua also said that he could not give the children's food to dogs. (Mat. 15:26) Scripture generally casts dogs in a negative light, for at that time they were generally wild, tamed only for shepherding purposes, though the Egyptians worshipped them. They are pleasant and useful in certain contexts, but are not to be treated as equal members of the family with humans. In this context, "dog" may be another allusion to the male cult prostitute of v. 17.
19. "You must not lend to your brother with interest--interest in [the form of] money, interest [in the form] of food, or interest of anything that is lent at interest.
Interest: literally, a bite. You are not to become rich by taking advantage of a brother’s neediness. Y’shua raised the standard by saying we should not even expect to get the principal back (Luke 6:35), though an honorable person will repay what he borrows.
20. "To a foreigner you may lend at interest, but to your fellow you shall not lend at interest, so that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in everything yet set your hand to in the Land to which you are going to take possession.
For this reason Jews were forced to be moneylenders in Christian Europe, then demonized for doing so. Strangely, this is one “Old Testament” command the Church chose to obey!
21. "When you make a vow to YHWH your Elohim, you must not delay to pay it, because YHWH your Elohim will indeed require it from you, and it would be a sin among you.
A vow: We are commanded to swear by YHWH’s name. The form is usually, “As surely as YHWH lives…” The Hebrew version of Matthew 23 does not contradict this. Y’shua was just saying we should not find loopholes that allow us to take an oath we do not plan to keep. Do not delay: This links us to bringing the firstfruits offering on time, instead of letting a kid grow up on its mother's milk first. (Ex. 23:19; 34:26) A kid will nurse for years if not deliberately weaned away, and this is against the spirit of bringing what one owes to YHWH as quickly as possible. If you put yourself at His disposal, you do not get to choose the timing; you must be available whenever He needs you. The longer you “drag your feet”, the more likely you are to back out of it. (Gibor)
22. "But if you refrain from making a vow, there will be no error on your part.
This almost sounds like it is saying that the better advice would not be to take an oath, because it will spare us trouble if we fall into circumstances where it would be an extreme hardship to keep our promises. In any case, vows should never be degraded into something one feels obligated to do in order to keep up with his neighbors to be better-respected, as was apparently the case in Y’shua’s day. He also built on this verse when he told those who made a distinction between vows sworn to YHWH and vows sworn by the altar, etc., that it was best not to swear at all, if one's ordinary word was to be cheapened thereby. YHWH is not interested in people competing to be perceived as more religious than others. Vows are an optional way to express one's love and appreciation for YHWH in an extra way, and it does not bother Him if we abstain from doing so. You choose, but never say you will do something if you do not plan to follow up on it:
23. "Whatever comes out of your lips you must be careful to carry out; just as you [carry out] a vow to give a freewill offering to YHWH your Elohim, do the same with whatever you have promised with your mouth.
The simple fact that you say you will do something should constitute a promise; one need not say, “I swear it.” So be careful to check the facts and be aware of what might obstruct you, and know yourself well enough to recognize where you are likely to fall short, so you will not make promises you cannot keep. Once one proves unreliable, it will be harder to trust him the next time, so each time you let someone down, the less likely he is to make a commitment to you.
24. "When you come into your fellow countryman's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes if you wish, but you may not bring any [out] in a container of your own.
This is not referring to the Sabbatical year, for which there are different rules. (Ex. 23:11; Lev. 25:3ff) Usually if one is in another's vineyard, unless he is just passing through, he would be there to help his neighbor with the harvest. The principle is the same as in 25:4--the worker deserves to share in the fruit of his work. That you are eating of his blessing speaks well of him. There is a certain fellowship and comraderie involved in sharing food together, but one should not take his neighbor's food out of this context, or it reflects thinking more of one’s own needs than of community. The overutilization of another’s generosity can become a form of greed. If your family needs it, they need to come glean in the place YHWH has designated; if we place too much expectation on one means YHWH uses to provide for us, we tend to forget that He is the actual source, and He, not the means He sometimes uses, is where we should put our trust. Figuratively, it is also overly taking advantage of another’s fruitfulness if we use more than a short quote of his to bolster our premise, to the point that his great idea appears to be our own.
25. "When you pass through your fellow countryman's standing grain, you may pluck the kernels with your hand, but you may not wield a sickle over your fellow countryman's standing grain.
Thus what Y’shua's disciples were doing (Luk. 6:1) was lawful, and he did not consider this to be work unworthy of the Sabbath, for they were not harvesting. We may eat freely while we are there, but not put our brother at a disadvantage by using what is his as security for our own tomorrow—as if the Elohim who provided for you in this way today could not do so again tomorrow in the same or a different way.
CHAPTER 24
1. "When a man has taken a wife and married her, and it comes about that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found something indecent in her, then he may write her a document of severance, place it in her hand, and send her out from his house,
To "take a wife and marry her" is not redundant. The first stage is the betrothal, which normally takes place a year or two before they actually live together. The betrothal is not mere engagement; it takes a bill of divorce to break it. Most from the Northern Kingdom have drawn our ideas about divorce only from the New Testament without the Torah background required to understand it properly. We do not want to take it so lightly that we engage in divorce parties complete with divorce cakes, as some now do, but neither should we consider the subject so taboo that we fail to deal with some very real situations where common sense tells us it is the only feasible option, as in cases of abuse or promiscuity involving life-threatening sexually-transmitted diseases. Divorce can destroy children’s sense of security and leave them with long-term scars. So it is not something for which anyone should give blanket approval. Yet neither should we ostracize those who have gone through it for what may be legitimate reasons. We have to know both what Torah really says about it and what Yeshua actually meant when he gave his well-known judgments in this regard. There are also keys in those passages and here to how a couple can fix a marriage that seemed broken beyond repair. Something indecent: literally, uncovered or naked, and in Torah to uncover someone’s nakedness is an idiom for having sexual relations with them. This is not granting permission to divorce a wife that he finds is not a virgin after all; that was already addressed in 22:20-21, which says she should be stoned, so he could not merely divorce her. That it “comes about” suggests that this is later in the marriage. Yet the procedure for a husband who suspects that his wife has cheated on him is found in Numbers chapter 5. It may be a case in which there might appear to be condemning evidence, if YHWH does not provide two witnesses, it indicates that He has chosen in this case to have mercy, for she is not officially established to be an adulterer in the eyes of the nation. The phrase “finds no favor” indicates that there is room for mercy here, for the root word for the term “favor” means “bending over” (i.e., “backwards”). One might choose to divorce her, but he does not have to. A key to how it was interpreted is that the term for “something indecent” literally means “an uncovered word”. A word in season (one that is “dressed” properly) can be a life-saver, as many Proverbs say, but one out of season—one not properly restrained when it should be, or one that gives evidence that what is really in her heart is not her husband’s needs, but only her own wishes. In the context of marriage, it might mean one who greets her husband after a hard day’s work with complaining or nagging. She has uncovered something that she should have at least left until later. Even this was considered grounds for divorce in Yeshua’s day. This “indecency” was interpreted however one wished to--even for something so trivial as burning his dinner. Yeshua considered adultery the only legitimate reason for divorce (Mat. 5:31ff). Apparently some Prushim heard what he said, because they used his own words to test him in regard to what was apparently a great controversy. (Mat. 19:1-12) He appealed to Torah. He referred them back to Genesis 2:24—to YHWH’s intent from the beginning, the older Torah that predates Sinai, not just what Moshe permitted because of our hardness of heart. His students, from the coarser part of society, respond by saying that if one is thus “stuck” with a wife, it would be better not to get married. He says this will not work for everyone, though there are some who abstain for the sake of the Kingdom. In the context of 23:1, he cannot mean that one should be celibate to concentrate on “full-time ministry” (for this has mainly led to pedophile priests). Rather, “If you are going to look at it in such a selfish way, yes, for the sake of your children and the rest of Israel, please don’t marry anyone!” But if you did wait for the one YHWH created specifically for you, then go to whatever length it takes to make the marriage work. YHWH agonized over our straying and still told Israel, “Come back, if you will repent.” (Yirmeyahu 3:1-8; Hoshea 2) Forgiveness is therefore an option in this case. Since the term for adultery can also mean idolatry, a spouse refusing follow YHWH is an allowable cause for divorce, per Ezra 10:18ff, where priests were required to put away the foreign wives (who remained pagan) that they had taken after the exile.
2. "and after she has left his house, she may go and become another man's wife.
While this allows for more causes for divorce than the Church does, Y’shua brings great balance for our day as well, when many assume they will need a “starter marriage” to make their mistakes, and later find the right mate.
3. "But if the latter husband despises her and writes her a document of divorce, places it in her hand, and sends her out of his house--or if the latter husband, who took her into his household, dies--
There are very few other things in Torah that we are commanded to put in writing. But a prerequisite for any legal divorce according to Torah is that she must be served with papers for this, though there is no such requirement if she is to be stoned to death! This shows how serious YHWH is about what He has joined together. He makes us go to great trouble, even great expense (if one has to hire a scribe) so that we will think twice about making such a move casually. Many wives have been left in very bad situations (including being unable to remarry) because their husbands did not provide them with such a document. If they abandon their responsibility in this regard, they should not be protected by Torah; if they have made themselves unavailable, does this permit the authorities who do follow Torah to write the document on her behalf so that the wife can begin to move on?
4. "her first husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she is defiled, because that is a disgusting thing to YHWH; you must not bring guilt upon the Land which YHWH your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance.
Defiled: the same word as “ritually unclean”, which is a picture of selfishness. How we handle the marriage relationship can even adversely affect our relationship with the Land of Israel. She now has two divorce documents that say, “Do not come back to my house.” After the second husband has found her indecent, there are also two witnesses to the fact that she has proven to be selfish in multiple contexts. She is only about what she wants, not about the marriage. It would be very bad for the husband if he took her back. YHWH is protecting us even from our own preference for mercy. When Y’shua says “whoever marries a divorced woman” (Mat. 5:32), in this context, he must mean “whoever marries a woman whom he himself married and divorced previously”. There is special significance to the requirement that both stages of marriage have taken place before it becomes wrong to remarry the same woman, because YHWH Himself divorced Israel (Yirm. 3:8), but it was only in the betrothal stage. Also, as Hoshea 2:2ff shows us, there is a difference between whoring with other men and committing to them in marriage. Even the Church does not want to be called pagan. Israel never married another, but kept flitting from one to another, worshipping anything and everything. Hoshea was told to marry such a woman, so this is allowable. The House of Israel had not had such a “second witness” put in writing what YHWH did once, so He is still within His own commands if He takes us back. (Hoshea 1:10)
5. "When a man has taken a new wife, he must not go out to battle, nor may any responsibility be passed on to him, but he shall be exempt for one year [to care] for his household and to let his wife, which he has taken, be joyful.
This is a different situation than when the war priest tells someone who has not yet married his betrothed to go back home from the battleground because his heart is somewhere else. (20:7) If you have just been wed, let your hobbies, buddies, promotions at work, and even your ministry wait. Have as few other responsibilities as possible in order to establish your marriage as strong from the start. YHWH set this exemption in place to give the couple a full year to concentrate on solidifying their relationship. This is the way to avoid the hardness of heart toward one another that leads to divorce. (vv. 1-4) Be joyful: This may also indicate ensuring that she conceives a child before he goes into a life-threatening battle.
6. "No one may take [either] a lower or an upper millstone as a deposit, because it is a life he is taking as a pledge.
In ancient times, bread constituted up to 90% of people’s diet. One cannot make bread from grain kernels; they must be ground into flour. No one can grind grain if he has only one of the two millstones, so if he is missing one, what will he eat? This would be self-defeating, since one was probably making the loan to him so that he can buy grain! The word for “pledge” means “to tie or bind together”. If you invest in someone to get him through hard times, you create a tie between his soul and your own. So it is in the interest of both parties to fulfill the pledge. We are not permitted to charge interest to our fellow countrymen, but you can hold something as collateral. The millstone is just one example. But if all he owned was an upper millstone, then take no collateral at all rather than putting him in hardship.
7. "If a man is discovered kidnapping a soul from among his brothers, the descendants of Israel, and placing him in bondage or selling him, that robber shall die; thus you shall purge out the evil from among yourselves.
Bondage: treats him like a slave or holds him hostage. Sells him: Treating a fellow Israelite like a commodity. The context is kidnapping someone to sell him for ransom in order to be paid back for a debt. One who places lust for money above his brother is not fit to live. YHWH made sure that what Yosef’s brothers did to him would not be repeated. One may make himself your slave (temporarily) in order to work off a debt, but you may not sell him to a foreigner (who might never release him).
8. "Take extra measures in the plague of leprosy that you pay close attention to do everything just as the officiators (the Levites) shall instruct you. You must be careful to do just as I ordered them.
We are not to try to handle any of these matters according to our own hearts. The officiators (“priests”) are the ones authorized to make rulings. (Mal’akhi 2:7) Leprosy is a plague sent on those who covet another's possessions or position (cf. Numbers 12:10).
9. "Remember what YHWH your Elohim did with Miryam on the way after you had left Egypt.
This gets to the root of the matter in verse 8. What He did (Ex. 12) was to strike her with leprosy because she envied another’s relationship with YHWH. She thought she deserved more than she was getting. This coveting of another’s position was also the cause for Uzziah’s and Gehazi’s leprosy (2 Kings 5:27; 15:5). It is a spiritually-induced condition, not a physically-contagious one. We must remember our history so we do not repeat her error.
10. "Any time you loan something to your brother, you may not go into his house to claim the collateral he gives [as a pledge].
11. "You must wait outside, and the man to whom you are lending shall bring the item securing the pledge out to you.
Do not think too much of yourself just because you have lent him money. You have no right to go inside to see what else he owns that you might prefer as collateral, as if it all belongs to you because you have helped him. Just thank YHWH for the occasion to be of help. This command would also prevent one from going in to find out that the borrower’s cupboards are not bare after all. One might thus judge the loan to be unnecessary, since he has enough already. But what if he wanted to borrow in order to aid a friend in need? Y’shua says not to refuse one who wants to borrow from you (Mat. 5:42)—provided it is in your power to do so. (Prov. 3:27)
12. "Moreover, if the man is poor, you must not go to sleep with the security pledge [still in your possession].
13. "You must be sure to return the article to him by the time the sun goes down, so he may lie down in his own outer garment, and bless you; this shall constitute justice for you in the presence of YHWH your Elohim.
Outer garment: fancier than his undergarments, but also warmer. It was usually a woolen square with a hole or slit cut in the middle for one's head, so it could easily double as a blanket in cold weather. He does not even say you can exchange it for a less urgently-needed item as a pledge; you just have to trust your brother—or at least trust YHWH to remind him of what he owes you!
14. "Do not exploit a hired worker who is poor and needy, [either] from among your brothers or from the sojourners who are in your Land, within your gates.
Within your gates: under your official protection, and therefore subject to your laws but also having a right to the same treatment as a citizen. This reflects on the reputation of the whole Land, and thereby YHWH Himself. Rather than being known as “a land that devours its inhabitants” (Num. 13:32), He wants the word to go out to the lands these sojourners come from that this is a Land that is generous, and that even strangers never had their pay withheld.
15. "You must give him his wage on its [proper] day, and do not let the sun go down on it, because he is impoverished and he pins his expectation on it. Otherwise he may cry out to YHWH against you, and it would constitute guilt for you.
Proper day: In ancient context where one was paid immediately since most lived from hand to mouth, it would be the same day, but, in any case, on the day it is expected or promised. If he complains, YHWH will pay attention and take his side. Conversely, doing what you promised will constitute righteousness.
16. "The parents shall not be executed because of the children, nor shall the children be executed because of the parents; anyone must die on account of his own guilt.
We cannot be held liable for wages our parents failed to pay. (v. 15) Compare Y’hezq’el 18:20, whose context includes many of the issues listed here (especially in vv. 17-18). It is the soul that sins that will die. We are held accountable for our own choices. Keep Torah and you will live. But if your son does not, he cannot rest on your laurels. But if the next generation repents (in overall lifestyle, not counting the inevitable slip-ups), they will again live. This very verse is often used to prove that Y’shua could not die for anyone else’s sins. But there is no magic to it, as if his death saved us no matter how we live. He took responsibility for us who were indeed still exiled because of our ancestors’ sins, making it his priority to redeem his lost brothers even when everyone around him had written us off as dead and unlikely to ever return, specifically so that we would not suffer for someone else’s guilt.
17. "You must not stretch out the court proceedings involving an alien or an orphan, nor shall you take a widow's garment as security [for a loan],
These two commands address the same issue: Do not take so long to make a ruling—or demand as collateral something so vital--that you endanger the lives of those who have no other resources. (See v. 13.)
18. "keeping in mind that you [yourself] were a slave in Egypt, and YHWH your Elohim rescued you from there; that is why I am ordering you to act in this manner.
Do not say “I can beat my children because I was beaten as a child”. Remember how it felt! Put an end to that cycle, and plant them in better ground. But it is not only because this is the moral thing to do; it is what YHWH did for us, and we owe it to Him. He wants justice to be a hallmark of His Land. We can say “He knows my heart”, but how we treat the most powerless in society shows clearly where our hearts are.
19. "When you reap your harvest in your field, and [realize you] have overlooked a sheaf in the field, you must not go back to retrieve it. It will be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, so that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in all that your hands [undertake to] do.
This way they still have the dignity of working for their food. You are not blessed because you forgot a sheaf, but because you remembered and left it anyway—because you thought of the defenseless, and provided for them. It is significant that it is a whole sheaf that is forgotten. The word for “sheaf” is omer, because the resulting grain translates down to one omer’s worth when all the useless parts are removed. A whole omer is sufficient to feed a person for a day. (Ex. 16:16) Like the manna in the wilderness, YHWH is still providing for His people’s needs. Only this time, rather than a miracle, those who are not disadvantaged are His means of provision. An omer has the value of a half-sheqel, the same price as the ransom for the soul of an Israelite. What you intentionally leave tells them, “Despite your plight, you are still part of a people. We care about you, even if you have nothing with which you could help us now.” Boaz made a special effort to obey this command (Ruth 2:16). He even did more than was required, and was rewarded by being ancestor of the royal line of David.
20. "When you beat [the fruit] off your olive tree, you shall not search through the branches behind you; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow,
Beat: Aramaic, "shake". These are people who have no inheritance—who would not be able to donate to any community fund—but YHWH does not want them marginalized.
21. "When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go back and glean it thoroughly; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow.
Wine, which is made from grapes, is a symbol of joy (Psalm 104:15), and indeed He wants every member of His society to be given a reason for joy, even if they cannot pay us back.
22. "remembering that you [yourself] were a slave in Egypt; that is why I am ordering you to act in this manner.
Considering the imagery of the omer gleaned in the field, olive tree, and the vineyard, compare the statement by the Gentile woman who impressed Y’shua with her faith: "Even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the master's table". (Mat. 15:27) A slave: and also a sojourner. (vv. 19-21) We must not forget that we were once in the same position, and YHWH did not leave us helpless. The whole House of Israel has been orphaned and left homeless. All the more reason that we who are beginning to have “gates” (organized communities with ancient authority structures restored) need to provide for those who are returning but are still isolated.
CHAPTER 25
1. "If there is a dispute between men, and they approach the court, and they have rendered a verdict [for] them (vindicating the righteous and condemning the guilty),
A dispute: over something not directly covered in the Torah, or something about which they could not come to an agreement out of court, whether because of stubbornness or because the case is difficult. This is why they come to the judge, asking him to find the deeper principle, but he must arrive at a verdict that clearly declares one party right and the other wrong, not “It was just a misunderstanding.” Many would say it is belittling to ever declare a person wrong, and few even of those who recognize clear absolutes are willing to do so because of a misinterpretation of Y’shua’s words, “Judge not, lest you be judged.” But this robs the Kingdom of a role required by the Torah. We need discrimination, for the issue must be resolved, because we all suffer if one remains angry with his brother. The emotion will one day subside, but if it is not settled, it can only be replaced by bitterness. And rarely is someone declared innocent today; “not guilty” is the best we can usually do because of all the loopholes or insufficient evidence. Yet once what is laid out in Torah is recognized, there is no room for middle ground. We must learn to make clear distinctions. And notice that there is no appeal on the ruling; the judge’s decision stands. This avoids the problem of the case being tied up for years, and everyone can get on with their lives. If the case is very difficult, there may be more than one judge; the court was in the city gates, where business was done—probably the source of most quarrels anyway. Whichever qualified judges were nearby on a given day might be called on; it was not a full-time job. And there is no jury of peers, for if I am not able to resolve the dispute, how can someone just like me resolve it? I need someone wiser than myself. Judges were not elected, and probably not compensated for their time, for the Torah warns about bribes. They would be people recognized by the authorities for their ability to see both sides of the issue and be impartial, as well as for their knowledge, integrity, wisdom, and experience. The Land was settled by tribes, and so the one judging would be related to both the plaintiff and the defendant, with whom they had to deal every day. Small matters should be settled within a household, where the father’s word is final, or at the level of leaders of tens, fifties, etc., before taking it to a higher level, or the judges would be very exhausted indeed, as Moshe was before receiving Yithro’s advice, and here he is laying out the details. All of Israel must be a learned peopleso justice will be carried out. The basics of being a judge are found in Exodus 23:1-9.
2. "then this is how it must be: if the guilty man is a [found] worthy of blows, then the judge shall have the man lie prostrate and be punished in his presence, with as many [blows] as his guilt deserves:
Worthy of blows: literally, "a son of beating", with the phrase paralleling the idiomatic way of describinig one’s age in Hebrew, indicating also that he is old enough to tolerate corporal punishment. In his presence: in public--another deterrent to crime. It is not an alternative to stoning where that is the sentence Torah indicates. In eastern countries, it is still common for those caught in wrongdoing to be beaten on their feet with a cane. If we knew certain actions would bring blows, we would probably behave much better. Torah-based judgment is the guard rail that keeps us in the safe zone. Have the man lie prostrate: If he does not submit to the punishment on his own, the judge is responsible to ensure that he does, just as in the case of stoning, the witnesses cast the first stone. For this reason and so the case is not prolonged, wasting everyone’s time, the judgment is carried out “while the iron is hot”, not months later.
3. "He may give him [up to] forty blows, but not exceed [this], in case (if he goes too far beyond these and beats him with too many blows) your brother should be disgraced in your eyes.
Up to forty: i.e., one may receive fewer than forty, according to the severity of the case, but never more. The usual practice came to be that only 39 blows were administered in case they should lose count. 40 is the number symbolizing transition and change. Adding an extra--making it 41, in effect continuing to punish someone after he repents--humiliates him and breaks his spirit. Disgraced: taken lightly, degraded, dishonored, seen as vile. Revenge is not the point of the chastisement; learning is. The Hebrew word for “teach” means to prod or goad, and the old adage holds true: “No pain, no gain.” If he were to get away with the wrongdoing, his guilt and disgrace would remain. The Biblical view is, “Blows that hurt… cleanse away evil from the innermost seat of desires.” (Prov. 20:30) This might prevent many of the other physical problems by which our bodies punish us if we let the guilt remain. One should not punish himself, either, for that can easily go far beyond what is reasonable; we must get what we deserve from someone impartial who has the right to judge. What a person can physically bear should be taken into account, but one is stretched best by being taken to his limit. YHWH takes us as low as we can go and still recover, but He does not degrade us. Once he has taken his stripes, the matter is settled, and he is to no longer be held in contempt by his community. He is a brother, and the reason we carry out judgment is not so we can get one over on someone or sadistically beat someone, but so that we can get things right in the family again. Though it must be done, it is also important that it be difficult to carry out judgment, so it does not become commonplace in our minds. The more we beat someone, the easier it becomes to keep doing so, but then we could easily forget that he is a person, and that would bring disgrace to the one beating him as well. Get it over with, and do not treat him as if he had done worse than he actually did. He has done the honorable thing by submitting to the judges and to his punishment, so do not abuse your right to judge. His actions are no longer to be held against him. And now he can help others; he is an expert on what not to do in that situation!
4. "You shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out [the grain].
On the literal level, there would be a pole in the center of a grain-threshing floor harnessed to the ox so it would walk in a circle, removing the husks from the grain and separating the separating kernels from the stalks. Its mouth must not be tied shut, so that it can be compensated for its work by eating some of the grain. YHWH is not cruel to animals (see Proverbs 12:10), but this command goes beyond consideration merely for them. It is an analogy of how we should treat those who work on our behalf, which is even more important. The theme of disgracing another continues here. Anyone who has part in a work should share in the reward. In context here, it refers to the one judging his brothers. He is a servant to all, so he is to be given special privileges, much like the Levites. Those who rule well are worthy of double honor. (1 Tim. 5:17) They have a right to have their food source come directly from the work they are doing. If those they judge learn from their rulings, they will have fewer and fewer rulings to make. Yeshayahu (Isaiah) compares rendering judgment with the different ways that different grains must be threshed, since some cannot take as rough treatment as others. (28:24-29)
5. "If brothers dwell together and one of them dies childless, the wife of the dead one shall not marry outside--to a stranger; her husband's brother shall come in regard to her and take her to himself as a wife, performing the duty of a husband's brother for her.
Together: if they remain on their tribal inheritance. To die childless is also a disgrace, so YHWH goes even beyond the natural limits of one’s life to ensure continuance to an Israelite. If the father does not leave seed, his wife's seed, if mingled with one from the same father as her husband, counts as his own, for the genetic similarity is as close as it can be. This is called the law of levirate ["brother-in-law"] marriage. This was common among other peoples in the Middle East, to the point that YHWH considered failure to extend this courtesy to be worthy of death. (Gen. 38) The fratrilineal aspects of Israelite society show up here in that the redeemer is either a brother, a father’s brother, or his father’s brother’s son (if there is no immediate brother).
6. "And this is how it will be: the firstborn to which she gives birth shall establish the name of his dead brother, so his name may not be obliterated from memory in Israel.
Firstborn: the term is masculine here, indicating that it must be a son, for the father’s name would be lost when a daughter married into another family. Establish: confirm, validate, rise up on; i.e., carry it on and let his lineage "take root". Name: or renown. This continuation of one's seed is why descendants can also repent for their ancestors, for in a very real way they are their ancestors (the same genetic line). His name may not be obliterated: i.e., if Shlomoh sired the son but Gid’on was the name of the brother who died childless, this child would be called “Ben Gid’on”. This shows how important fruitfulness is to YHWH. This also ensures a place for the widow in the family. It is still permissible if the brother who takes the widow is already married.
7. "Now if the man does not [gladly] agree to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the elders in the gate, and declare, ‘My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my brother-in-law.'
8. "Then the elders of his city shall summon him and threaten him, but if he persists in saying, ‘I do not agree to take her',
9. "then his brother's wife shall approach him in the sight of the elders, remove his shoe from his foot, spit in his face, and testify, saying, ‘This is what will be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house.'
This was carried out by Ruth toward the kinsman who was nearer than Boaz. But remember Yochanan the Immerser's statement that he was not worthy to loosen the sandal-thong of the one who came after him. He was upholding the imagery of Y’shua being yet a nearer kinsman, and one who did fulfill the Torah's intent of building up/re-establishing the house of his brother, the northern Kingdom (since he was from the still-established house of Yehudah), while we were "dead" to the covenant, in exile, and unworthy of this honor.
10. "Then his infamy will be proclaimed throughout Israel [as] ‘the household of him who had his shoe taken off'.
It is permissible to opt out, but not with one’s honor intact. He will not be punished per se, but this will bring shame on his entire household from that time onward. He even gets a new nickname! This shows the importance of a man’s memory being kept alive through his progeny and of his widow being cared for. This is still done today among some Orthodox Jews, even in the United States. The script of the ritual includes the question, “Do you consider your brother to have never lived?” One with his sandals on his feet is prepared to move when YHWH makes it possible (Ex. 12:11); this man lives out the opposite picture.
11. "If some men are struggling with each other, and the wife of one comes close to [try to] pull her husband away from the hand of his assailant, and she stretches out her hand and grasps him by the genitals,
12. "then you shall chop off her hand; your eye shall not have any compassion on her.
She was trying to prevent the man from having descendants, thus obliterating his name forever. (See v. 6.) If she threatens a man’s fruitfulness, even under the most extreme conditions, she dishonors both men (her husband, because a woman had to save him, and the other man, because of the obscenity of touching him there. If he was about to kill her husband, she would need to use another means to stop him; she is free to gouge his eyes out, but not this. Placing one's hand on another's genitals (as in the vow of Avraham's servant, Gen. 24:2) showed the utmost in trust, and this woman is breaching the trust that there has to be among the fellow members of the nation of Israel. One who does that must bear severe consequences. Fruitfulness is the hallmark of Israel (vv. 5-10). Removing the hand that would try to destroy it is an apt picture, however grotesque.
13. "You shall not keep in your money-bag [both] a large weight and a small weight.
14. "You shall not keep in your household [both] a large measuring-basket and a small measuring-basket.
The idea is not like the transition from English weights to metric. Rather, there were two similar measuring vessels, both of which were being called an "eyfah" (the specific measure used here as an example of the broader principle). The merchant would select the slightly-bigger one when buying, so he could weigh out a larger amount of a product to his advantage, and select the slightly-smaller one when selling, so he would still have the advantage. Y’shua said that "Do unto others as you would want them to do to you" is a summary of "the Torah and the prophets". (Mat. 7:12) There must be justice at every level in Israel for us to be able to remain as tenants on YHWH's Land:
15. "Rather, you shall have an impartial, just weight; an untainted, just measuring-basket you shall have [also] so that your lifetime may be long on the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you,
Impartial: often rendered "perfect”. In Torah, part of the perfection is the remedy if you or your ox do something wrong. There is a way to restore the harmony--by doing particular things that will make both sides of the scale even out and weigh the same again. There is not meant to be one weight used to measure out merchandise to the poor, and a different one when selling to the rich who can afford more. Y’shua’s brother Yaaqov (James) carries this concept over to showing respect to newcomers to our congregations. We need to see each for what he is worth, not according to how they appear or what they have. And we are not to rule in favor of the poor just because they are poor, for they may still be in the wrong. Some Jews today, too, say that non-Jews are not required to do as much as they, and even forbid non-Jews from keeping the Sabbath! Those coming into Torah should not judge the Rabbis by a lower standard than they judge pastors. The two houses of Israel must be judged by the same standard, whether for better or for worse. Both have the same responsibility to obey the Torah and the same authority to teach it once they know it well. Paul was corrected for giving the Northern Kingdom too low a standard, and the elders ruled that though obedience to the whole body of Torah was not necessary before one could come in the door, they still had to go to where the Torah was taught each Sabbath and keep learning little by little. (Acts 15:20) Yaaqov echoes Y’shua’s call to avoid impartiality and to include the lost tribes. (Yqv. 1:1; 2:1-9)
16. "because all who do such things and all who deal unrighteously are disgusting to YHWH your Elohim.
We need to regain the recognition that YHWH does indeed recoil in disgust from some people. Since the stranger among us is required to keep to the same standard as the most learned (Num. 15:13ff), this highlights the importance of keeping the commandments uncomplicated by unauthorized rules added by men, so we do not place unnecessary burdens on the weakest. (Mat. 23:4)
17. "Remember what Amaleq did to you when you were on the journey, having come out of Egypt
Amaleq—the “valley-dweller”—represents the opposite of those with a Kingdom calling, for the Torah emanates from the mountains. (Yeshayahu 2:2) “Worthless” in Hebrew means “what does not ascend”.
18. "--how he met you by the roadside and attacked your rear--all the feeble ones at the back of your [caravan], when you were fainting and exhausted--while not respecting YHWH.
Taking advantage of the unsuspecting, the weak, the disadvantaged (who can barely keep up) puts you in the same category as Amaleq in YHWH’s eyes. He: Amaleq is referred to as singular, since “valley-dwellers” are each about themselves, not their brothers. They will eventually turn on one another. Attacking someone when he is already weakened arouses the justice in YHWH, and He sets His face against them. But in a community, the strong will uphold the weak. We all have some valleys to walk through. The point is to avoid staying there so we do not give Amaleq the strength. We should especially guard the weak. But do not say, “It’s okay, some of us are just weak.” That does not help them become stronger! We will never starve Amaleq that way. How do we blot out his remembrance? By teaching the weak, challenging them, holding them accountable, so that they will become stronger, and show that they are not deliberately distancing themselves from community and hanging back—choosing to walk at their own pace instead of keeping up with Moshe’s, for if they did, they would become an easy target, setting themselves up as bait for this attack. That would only encourage Amaleq to continue their practices.
19. "So when YHWH your Elohim grants you a respite from all the enemies round about you in the Land which YHWH your Elohim is giving to you as a property to take possession of, [then] obliterate the memory of Amaleq from under heaven. Don't forget!
Though the punishment for some is to die childless (Lev. 20:20-21), YHWH makes provision for an Israelite's line to be carried on by a roundabout way so his name (as part of Israel, even if not in the best standing) is not blotted out. But Amaleq’s name is to be obliterated. Yes, this is genocide! YHWH does not want certain genes to endure, and He specifies which. Don't forget to not remember them! It is so important that it almost sounds contradictory. By no means let the duty to fight Amaleq in every generation be forgotten! He actually perpetuates their name by mere virtue of this reminder, but it is in order to ultimately blot it out completely. (Compare Psalm 92:7) YHWH did not say He would do it. Sha’ul did not carry out his part in doing this, so Shmu’el had to. King Agag was a descendant of Amaleq (Esau's son). Apparently he had enough time to procreate before being slain, and Haman was able to exist as a result. But David destroyed more of the Amaleqites who remained in Israel in his day. Our job is to obliterate the attitudes they embodied—the belief that all is chance, and that they therefore can be opportunists, taking advantage of the disadvantaged, not expecting any retribution.(v. 18)
TORAH PORTION
Ki-Theytze'
(Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19)
INTRODUCTION: Dignity and justice for all—even those who would be otherwise despised as the dregs or downtrodden of society (21:10-17)—is where this portion again focuses. And it gets down to some pretty minute details which give ample room to adapt to similar but unprecedented cases, since everyone’s situation is slightly different. Those who do not value either their own or their parents’ dignity are made an example, but even those executed are given the dignity of a decent burial before their bodies decompose, which also has health benefits for the whole community. (21:18-23) Moshe discusses such things as what to do with items that one loses and another finds (22:1-4), cross-dressing (22:5), how kindness to animals also helps us (22:6-7), practical safety measures (22:8), and why some things just can’t mix (22:9-12). Some of the evidences in regard to sexual incidents may seem a bit embarrassing, but they can prevent much confusion, just as the other rules in regard to this sticky area can do. (22:13-23:2) From there it is a surprisingly-smooth transition into the importance of rewarding those who were once good to us by treating their descendants with a degree of kindness not required for everyone. (23:3-8)
Whether it is dirt we pick up outside the camp or dirt that comes from within us (and this may apply even more to the metaphorical kind than the obvious literal type), YHWH wants it kept outside the camp, because not only does it disgust Him; it endangers others. (23:9-14) Some of those “outside” things that disgust Him are cruelty to the downtrodden (23:15-16), prostitution, especially in a religious context (23:17-18), gaining wealth at our neighbors’ expense (23:19-20), going back on our word (23:21-23), and taking undue advantage of others’ generosity (23:24-25).
A new wife is meant to be a cause for joy (24:5), but if for some reason she is not, this delicate matter must be handled only in certain ways, because they cannot be reversed. (24:1-4) Treating one another with insensitivity especially during times of crisis (24:6-15) has deeper repercussions than we might imagine if we are thinking only pragmatically, so the Torah hints at the attitudes which are meant to underlie all our dealings with one another. He wants justice (24:16), not recklessness, especially for those to whom it is a life-and-death matter (24:17-19), for if YHWH is partial to anyone, it is to those who are most defenseless against the effects of the fall of humanity—things He never wanted introduced into His world. (24:20-22) Even those who are guilty are not to be disgraced (25:1-3), and the principle extends to beasts of burden as well. (25:4) Death is a part of the world as it is, but YHWH wants to cheat it out of whatever victory He can, so He makes continuity possible even for those who have been its victims before they were able to leave a part of themselves behind. (25:5-6) The one who tries to avoid participating in this merciful act of YHWH is the one who is to be disgraced. (25:7-12) And those who take advantage of those most burdened by the difficulties of the world we live in are in danger of being put in the same category of those whose memory He does want obliterated. (25:13-19)
Commands that
“Rejoice the Heart”
(See Psalm 19:8)
This Torah portion covers a wide variety of seemingly-miscellaneous legal topics, but in a world where the “law of the jungle” was the norm, they were quite revolutionary in their day, and from these seeds many noble concepts have grown, enabling mankind to avoid unnecessary injuries, minimize our beastly tendencies, and rise to great heights:
1) Humane treatment of captives and second wives--if there still must be some (Deut. 21:10-17); i.e., setting limits on how far a less-than-ideal situation can be allowed to go
2) Capital: endowing the firstborn with a double portion as means to provide for his relatives as a kinsman redeemer (21:17)
3) Quick burial for the purposes of both dignity and hygiene (21:22-23)
4) Humane and sustainable treatment of animals (22:6-7, 9; 25:4)
5) Safety fences and guard rails (22:8)
6) Bringing evidence to the courtroom to stop persuasive deceivers (22:14-17)
7) Restrictions on who can make or decide on societal norms, based on exemplary character (23:1-8)
8) Quarantining those who could infect others and need for an authority on what to do (23:10-11; 24:8)
9) Sanitation (23:12-14)
10) Sanctuary for sociopolitical refugees (23:15-16)
11) Sexual standards in public life (23:17018; 24:1-5)
12) Interest-free loans for those who need them most (23:19-20)
13) Penalties for breaking an oath and holding to a standard of truthfulness (23:21-23)
14) Consideration in both making excess available and not taking undue advantage of it (23:24-25; 24:19-22)
15) Collateral charged cannot be something essential (24:6-13)
16) Rapid payment of wages (24:14-15)
17) Limits on guilt by association (24:16-18)
18) Limits on what kind of punishment is considered reasonable vs. “cruel and unusual” (25:1-3)
19) Propriety and preserving others’ fruitfulness (25:11-12)
20) Standards in weights and measures (25:13-16)
There are some laws here that, if enforced in societies today, would preclude some of the most asinine political issues that have come up recently: if one is not even permitted to dress like the member of another gender (22:5), one might never even imagine an “identity” different from what objective biology prescribes, or carry it further to an actual sex change.
Others are a little more puzzling, such as the forbidding of mixing animal and plant fibers in the same garment. (22:9-11) These take more digging to see the principle in them, but it is there and if we seek, we can find it; and we may not have to look far, because the “unequal yoke” is right in the same context, and it appears these are all grouped together for a reason.
They may not all be to our tastes; the most difficult command of all is in this portion—the one in which parents of a rebellious son must turn him over for execution so that he does not set a precedent for evil (21:18-21). We hope that the very thought of putting one’s parents through that was enough of a deterrent that it never had to be carried out. But some people would not begin to respect the law unless it threatened their very lives, so this, too, is justice.
In most of YHWH’s laws, it is easy to see the beauty that would make the psalmist rave (Psalm 19:7-11, etc.), as we see in the title; others are of necessity severe, but when looking at the whole picture of the human condition, we must agree that His judgments are “true and righteous altogether”. (Psalm 19:9)
Study questions:
1. How does YHWH treat even a slave captured in battle with high dignity? (Deut. 21:13-14)
2. How does YHWH ensure justice for someone who is being superseded by a rival who came on the scene later? (21:15-17) How does 22:13-19 add more facets of the same attitude YHWH wants us to foster? How does YHWH ensure that this consideration does not become abused? (22:20-21)
3. How does YHWH rescue those who are being “eaten out of house and home” by a parasite of a son? (21:18-21) How long do you think this kind of situation should be allowed to go on, with the benefit of doubt or hope for change, before one resorts to such a drastic measure? How does He ensure that even the guilty son receives a fair hearing?
4. How does YHWH ensure dignity even in the death of a capital offender? (21:22-23) What might the “reproach” spoken of here be? How would leaving the body hanging overnight defile the Land?
5. Does the idea of “finders keepers” square with the Torah? (22:1-3) What if you do not know who the owner of a thing is? Does that excuse you if there is any possibility of determining whose it is?
6. How does YHWH ensure that the innocent animal of someone who is hated does not suffer because of human enmity? (22:4) How does this compare with Exodus 23:4? How did King Shlomo carry this a step further? (Proverbs 25:21) How does Yeshua weigh in on this theme? (Luke 6:27, 35)
7. Why do you think YHWH finds it so objectionable to push the limits of gender roles? (22:5)
8. How does kindness to animals also help us in the process? (22:6-7, 10; 25:4)
9. Are safety regulations worth the expense? (22:8)
10. How might the mixtures forbidden in 22:9-11 be harmful to us? How can you carry this concept over into other areas of life and even worship?
11. How does YHWH ensure that the scales are not unfairly weighted in either direction when it comes to sexual offenses? (22:22-29) How is each of these rulings a deterrent to even entering into such actions?
12. How important is hospitality to YHWH? (23:4-6) What can you lose if you are not hospitable? (23:7)
13. How does 23:20 compare with 23:16-17? How are the two ideas similar? What does it tell you about YHWH?
14. Where does YHWH draw the line between one’s responsibility to be hospitable and another’s greed? (23:25-26)
15. Have you ever heard of a law in any other nation similar to the directive in 24:5 about a man not going to war or abroad for business for a year after marrying? What does this say about YHWH’s priorities and His providence? Might David have been thinking of these unique and amazing chapters when he said, “Oh, how I love Your Torah!”?
16. How might other privacy laws stem from 24:10-11?
17. What modern labor laws stem from 24:12-15?
18. How many ways can you count in these chapters where YHWH makes special provisions to ameliorate the effects of a sinful world on people who have been brought into dire circumstances but not by their own bad choices?
19. How does YHWH maintain the dignity of someone who has made a mistake but who must continue living among the people he has wronged? (25:1-3)
20. What unusual process does YHWH set in place to preserve the memory of someone who has died without a descendant? (25:5-6) Why do you think this is so important to Him that He brings shame to the one who will not follow the procedure? (25:7-10)
21. Does 25:11-12 seem cruel on first reading? Why is this principle important enough to go to such lengths to deter it?
22. How many different aspects of justice can you count in these chapters?
23. What is it about Amaleq’s philosophy that YHWH hates so much as to warrant what amounts to genocide in its case? (25:17-19) Why is it so dangerous to leave such an entity in the world?
Companion Passage:
The Sidewalk
for Kids
“Finders keepers, losers weepers”? Is that right? What do you think?
I don't mean if a $20 bill blows to you in the wind and there’s nobody else anywhere nearby; that might just be YHWH’s provision when you need it. But if you found a smart phone on a park bench and there was a way to figure out who it belonged to, could you consider it yours just because you “found” it?
Besides the fact that calling anyone whom YHWH has created with lots of potential a “loser” goes against the tone of the Torah, Moshe is very clear (Deuteronomy 22:1-4) that if you find something someone could prove was his own, you are its “keeper” only as long as you have to wait for the owner to come get it back from you. “Keep” in Hebrew means to guard, take care of, and watch over something carefully (like a “bee-keeper” or, in older English, as Hevel was called “a keeper of sheep”).
In other words, you make sure it is safe and stays in good condition until the owner can come to get it back. You don’t use it while you wait for him, unless you want to risk having to get him another one if it breaks or gets messed up.
This is part of a bigger idea in Torah, expressed in many ways right in this very portion. YHWH is concerned especially for people who are at a disadvantage. This is all over the Torah. If somebody borrows something from you and you want to hold something of his as a deposit until he brings it back, you can’t pick something he is going to really need right away—like a blanket to keep him warm at night. (Deut. 24:13) If you agree to pay somebody to do some work for you, you can’t wait to pay him, because he might not even have enough to get tonight’s dinner without it. (24:15) If someone has lost the husband or father who used to provide for her, you mustn’t make life even harder for her in any way. (27:19)
So wouldn’t you think that nowadays, when somebody’s phone is also his camera, his notebook, his contact list, his web-searcher, his radio, his weather-man, his newspaper, his credit card, his library, his dictionary, his translator, his alarm clock, his photo album, his map, his calendar, etc., etc., he just might need it back? He just might have a really hard time if somebody found it and didn’t give it back? And do you think you should make him pay to get it back from you?
Well, the Torah’s answer for that, as with just about everything else, is, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18) Would you want somebody to do that to you if you were in that situation? Then there’s your answer. It’s called the “golden rule” because it is so valuable and important.
So if you’re a “finder”, be a “keeper” in the Biblical sense, not the modern sense. Your neighbor will be very grateful and be much more eager to do the same thing for you if you are ever a “loser” and need lots of help. Aren’t you glad YHWH’s commandments protect you too?
The Renewal of
KI-THEYTZE'
"If a man has a rebellious son who grievously provokes him and will not obey his father's or mother's voice, and after they have disciplined him, will not listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him to the elders of his city or the gates of his locality, and tell the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, and will not obey our voice; he is a squanderer and a drunkard.' Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death [and] purge out the evil.” (Deut. 21:18-21)
Just because he was not fasting publicly like his cousin, but went to parties, Yeshua said (possibly with some satire) that the people who no one could satisfy would call him “a glutton and a drunkard” (Mat. 11:19)—and even a “friend of publicans [maybe Republicans too] and sinners”. Is this what they thought gave them the right to execute him—because they felt they could act like his parents and dictate his halakhah? He was certainly unsubmissive, not to YHWH or His Torah, but to human traditions that were invented to make people’s religion more measurable than a heart relationship ever could be.
“If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he has been executed, and you hang his body on a tree, his body may not remain on the tree all night. Rather, you must by all means bury him that [same] day (since whoever is hanged is cursed by Elohim).” (21:22-23)
There was special concern that Yeshua’s body be taken down from the “tree” before the Passover feast could begin. (Yochanan 19:31) He had not fulfilled the first requirement here—committed a capital offense—but he was made a sin offering for us and was thus treated as if guilty in our stead, becoming a curse for us (though not deserving it) so that we could be forgiven and not be cursed after all. (Gal. 3:13)
“If you see your countryman's donkey or ox fall down along the road, you must not ignore them; you must by all means [help] them up.” (Deut. 22:4) Yeshua assumed people would pull their own animal out of a ditch even on the Sabbath, without thinking twice about it (Luke 14:1-6), yet they were upset with him for removing the misery a man had suffered for many years, just because it was the Sabbath. A double standard and with values weighted wrongly, indeed. But I have heard people say, “My ox is in a ditch!” as an excuse to work on (a day they thought was) the Sabbath. Not the right analogy either.
“You must not plow with an ox and a donkey together.” (Luke 22:10) This is an “unequal yoke”, which the Renewed Covenant carries to another level, showing that the same principle extends into the area of marriage (2 Corinthians 6:14), which is where it is actually more practical for more people today who don’t live in agricultural settings. This demonstrates the versatility of the Torah. Many write it off because it addresses many situations we rarely experience in the modern world. But it actually transcends culture and time and location, being applicable anywhere and everywhere. Though YHWH does have a favorite place where He has “set His name”, the Renewed Covenant gives many example of how we can still live out the same truths in the context of exile and diaspora when we understand what underlies each commandment.
In chapter 23, there are several kinds of people excluded from “YHWH’s ruling council”. My friend Jodell Onstott pointed out that this refers to the decision-making, land-owning group that rendered judgment, as opposed to the larger congregation that would assemble on the Sabbath and festivals, from which YHWH would not exclude any who cannot actively defile others. But those who rule the nation, or even a city, are held to a higher standard.
The Renewed Covenant also sets high standards for congregational leaders, wherever in the world they may be found: “An overseer must be beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, soberly vigilant, self-controlled, orderly, hospitable to foreigners, skilled at teaching, not given to wine, not a [pugnacious] brawler, but reasonable, not argumentative, not greedy, taking the leadership in his own household well, having his children in subordination with all dignity,… not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he might fall into the condemnation of the Accuser. Moreover, he must have a good report among outsiders, so that he may not fall into… the adversary’s trap.” (1 Tim. 3:2-7)
“You must not turn over to his master a slave who has escaped to you from his master.” (Deut. 23:16) It is beautiful laws like this that made David cry out, “Oh, how I love Your Torah!” (Psalm 119:97)
But did Paul then do wrong in sending Onesimus back to Philemon? Tradition says he was a runaway, but the text never says this. It appears rather that he was “fired” for either negligence or some offense, and because of having no income, probably had been arrested for being a thief—but under Paul's influence in the jail he had become a believer in Yeshua (Philemon 1:10) and was beginning to manifest the fruits of his new birth. Paul is the one appealing to his old friend to take him back and gave him a second try, confident that his change of not only heart but spirit would guarantee a different result this time.
"There may be no prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite among the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the hire-price of a prostitute… into the house of YHWH your Elohim…, because both of these are indeed disgusting to YHWH your Elohim.” (Deut. 23:17-18) YHWH’s Temple is not to be like the pagan ones. When YHWH’s house is seen on a much grander scale, the same rules will apply: “By no means shall anything profane enter into [the city]… Outside are the… sorcerers, fornicators, murderers, and idolaters.” (Revelation 21:27; 22:15) “Neither the promiscuous nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate [men] nor males who engage in same-sex copulation, nor thieves nor greedy [persons] nor drunkards nor mockers nor extortioners will receive a portion in the Kingdom of Elohim.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
But lest we fear there is no hope for us if we have done any of these things, Paul follows it with “And such WERE some of you, BUT you were washed off [completely], but you were set apart, but you were justified in the name of our Master Yeshua the Messiah, by the spirit of our Elohim.”
“When you make a vow to YHWH your Elohim, you must not delay to pay it… But if you refrain from making a vow, that is no sin for you.” (Deut. 23:21-22) This gave Yeshua the authority to take it a step further, when commenting on this passage, saying it is better to be known for speaking truth at all times, so that you need not add an oath at all, since your word is already your promise. (Mat. 5:34-37)
“When you pass through your fellow countryman's standing grain, you may pluck the kernels with your hand…” (Deut. 23:25) Thus Yeshua judged as guiltless those who were being accused of breaking the Torah just because they did this on Shabbat (Mat. 12:1-7); the Torah only considers it harvesting if one brings a container to take the grain home with you. One cannot be held liable for what it does not say.
“You shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out [the grain].” (Deut. 25:4) Paul said this extends to the humans who deserve support while they give of their energies to teach us. (1 Cor. 9:7ff; 1 Tim. 5:17-18)
“When a man has taken a wife and… she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found something indecent in her, he may write her a document of severance,… and… she may go and become another man's wife.” (Deut. 24:1-2) Yeshua said divorce was far from ideal, but Moshe had only permitted this because we were stubborn and did not really want to let the deeper truth of YHWH’s original intention into our hearts. (Mat. 19:8) Let’s not make the same mistake, but be lights in this again-dark generation.
Foundations of a Society That Can Work
Many of our culture’s core values come from right here: Don’t add insult to injury. (Deut. 21:14; 25:3, 11) Don’t cheat anyone. (25:13-16) Treat those closest to you with dignity. Any bad feelings about your child or spouse (even if the result of a situation like in 25:5-6) may not diminish their rights in any way. (21:15-17) If you act impulsively on your momentary anger, you can’t change your mind later. (24:1-4)
So we would expect parents to take a long time to reach the point of giving up on their child. (21:18-21) Yeshua too was called a “glutton and a drunkard” (Mat. 11:19), but not by his parents (21:20); them he obeyed. (Luke 2:51) Whom he did not obey were the religious leaders who stole that role from the Levites to whom the Torah assigned it. (Deut. 17:9) So they hung him on a tree, but not for anything worthy of death (21:22-23), so this curse did not attach to him (Prov. 26:2), even if it affected him short-term for our sake. (Gal. 3:13) “Everyone must die for his own sin” (24:16) doesn’t have to apply to the “second death”, if we agree to a transfusion of the perfect blood by which it can be waived. (Rev. 20:6)
Some say it’s only a New Testament idea that it’s wrong to give away one’s virginity prior to marriage, and only adultery (taking an already-married woman) is forbidden in Torah. But Deut. 22:20-21 clearly says the first scenario brings one’s parents shame too, unless the one violating a girl does the next-most-honorable thing and marries her officially (22:28-29)--because he has already married her in fact. There is no place in Israel to cheapen such primary relationships (23:18) or even to dress like the opposite sex (22:5). YHWH wants clear distinctions wherever He has created them. (Lev. 10:10) Sexual sin is taken so lightly today, as if it can’t be avoided. Yes, there are stumblingblocks, but to YHWH it is a capital offense (22:20-27) since it causes so many wounds; that He hates such sorrow should be enough of a deterrent.
YHWH also feels the pain when we lose something we love, and insists that we restore what someone else lost whenever we can, and even when we think we can’t find the owner. (22:1-3) But when it comes to a slave who has escaped his master, YHWH understands human cruelty and will not have us send someone back into that context; He intends that that kind of “property” does get ”lost”. (23:16-17)
Sanitation is His idea. (23:11-15) After all, contamination is one corruption of a world he created good and pure, and He finds this perversion (universal though it is) repulsive—so keep His territory clean.
Translations of 23:2-5 sound like people with deformities or traits that are not their own fault must be excluded from the community of Israel. But Jodell Onstott clarified that they are only barred from the smaller body that makes decisions affecting the nation. Like those who cannot serve as priests in public (but can perform hidden functions that keep the sanctuary operating), they are not what YHWH wants to hold up as examples for the rest, so they are disqualified from leadership, but not from being part of His people altogether. Some immigrants do have to be part of Israel for three generations before being considered familiar enough with the ways of YHWH to rule on how other Israelites must act. (23:9)
YHWH reserves the right to tell us how to feel about certain groups of people, whether it is our natural inclination or not. (23:4-9) Remember, you could be only one step away from their plight. (24:17-22)
So don’t burden one another with interest that spirals out of control (23:20-21); don’t make someone pay for your generosity, if you have enough to lend him in his need. Treat him with the same consideration you’d want. (24:10-15) He should pay you back, just as you must do what you promise. (23:22-24) But don’t take advantage of anyone’s generosity either; use only as much as you actually need. (23:25-26)
If we just mastered these, what a different world it would be!
YHWH’s Solutions
for Coping with
the World We Chose
Dinesh D’Souza summarizes the problems of pain and suffering with, “This is the world we wanted.”
In the Garden we chose a world where we could call the shots rather than doing things as YHWH knew (and told us) would work best. It turned out to have awful consequences. He summarized it as “death”; all its evils are indeed corollaries of that principle, with many spinoffs we never imagined but which we could not undo once we made that choice.
But YHWH does not take a “told you so” attitude toward the heartbreaks we created; He sympathizes with the victims of the circumstances our disobedience brought about. He made it possible to alleviate much of the trouble by “the sweat of our brow”--quite a lot of it. This Torah portion tells us many ways He helps us put limits on the problems that inevitably came with our initial choice, compounded by many more bad decisions since.
He sometimes directly intervenes, but usually gives us the responsibility of cleaning up the mess we’ve made, but He does give us many tips about how to best accomplish that goal and bring a reasonable measure of order to what is now again a disorderly world, even to the point of making it possible for someone who died childless to still have an heir. (25:5ff) But He shows no mercy to one who’d try to prevent another’s fruitfulness. (25:9-12)
YHWH takes the feelings of orphaned war captives seriously. (21:10-14) He upholds and defends the rights of the less-loved (21:15-17) and even the dignity of one legitimately executed because of true guilt, because he is still human. (21:22-23) He even permits overburdened parents to undo their creation of a son who consistently does not pull his weight, if verified properly. (21:18-21) We have no record of this ever having to be carried out, but at worst He made allowances for even the most tragic circumstance, and at best provided an effective deterrent.
Animals, too, exercise their will to escape the confines we put on them, but YHWH tells us to not just leave them lost but do something to actively remedy the situation, even if you don’t even know who the stray belongs to. We are capable of solving such problems if we care enough about one another’s welfare to make the effort. (22:1-4)
He wants us to make distinctions (22:5, 9-11; 23:19; 24:1-4), because by doing so we can maximize the good and anticipate problems and preclude them. (22:8) He puts rulers in place with the authority to enforce consequences for those who would deceive and betray to get out of a situation they don’t like. (22:13-29) But make sure both sides of the story are heard. (22:20-21) He makes reasonable accommodations for variable situations. (22:25-27)
Limitations are imposed because of some effects of the fall, even if not necessarily our individual fault (23:1-3), sometimes on a national scale because of a history of mistreating YHWH’s people. (23:4-9) He gives us basic principles of sanitation so the world will not get as bad as it could. (23:11-15)
At times everyone suffers because of the wrongdoing of a few; that is the way it works in a world we chose where humans can be powerful at others’ expense. (Galatians 5:17) YHWH will not always change it mid-stream. At the end He does promise justice for all, but meanwhile we need to do all we can to keep justice’s head above water. (24:16-18; 25:13-16) He wants us to aid escapees from those who had enslaved them. (23:16-17) He terminates the life of one who would kidnap and sell another human being. (24:7) Though He promised general victory in war when His people obey, He does not always guarantee that individuals will survive (23:10), so He exempts some from the risks at certain times in their lives. (24:5; see also 20:3-7.) He puts limits on how much a creditor can demand as collateral. (24:10-13)
In the world our first ancestors chose for us, we will not be able to treat everyone equally well, so He tells us to prioritize loving those with whom we may have to keep dealing all our lives. (23:20-21) He insists we pay those who work for us on time (24:14-15), and wants us to make it as easy as possible on those who are feeling the brunt of the fall most keenly through no direct fault of their own (24:20-22), and even to preserve the dignity of those who are at fault. (25:1-3) But He forever holds it against those who take advantage of the weak. (25:17-19)
YHWH subjected creation to futility in hope. (Romans 8:20ff) D'Souza explains, “He gives us the world we want…as a trial…to see if we wanted to live in that other world—always available to us—in which we operate constantly… under [YHWH’s] authority and…will.”
We’ve already experienced the alternative; it’s not good. Choose His way this time.
How Do You Think
Our Creator Feels?
If even cross-dressing is repulsive to YHWH (Deut. 22:5), how much more do you think He is offended by those who think He made a mistake in which sex He created them to be, and try to surgically change it? Isn’t that a slap in His face? It’s haSatan’s philosophy: “I can do better than YHWH!” Seriously?! No matter how advanced the science, I doubt they will ever truly succeed at changing what goes as deep as the DNA in every cell of one’s body.
We could say the same for other species He has very carefully crafted. It is interesting that science is finally realizing what He said in 22:9 about the possibility that all the heritage seed could be lost if we keep cross-breeding it, and though it has taken generations to recognize, the genetic “improvements” men make for the sake of convenient transport or preservation do not agree as well with the structure of the bodies of those who eat these crops, causing reactions as serious as Celiac disease, which requires expensive changes in diet, at best.
If the principle in Deuteronomy 24:7 was consistently enforced (and not just in Israel, though that is where it starts), the human trafficking that the film Sound of Freedom brings to light would have never reached the horrific extent it has. Part of the problem is that those in high positions who could best enforce crackdowns are often themselves involved in perpetuating this crime which YHWH always (24:7!) considers a capital offense.
When we see from His perspective as their Creator, we will realize that Yeshua was really making an understatement rather than going too far when he said “it would be better for anyone who causes these little ones to stumble to have a millstone hung around his neck and he be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Mat. 18:6) Notice he said it would be “better” for them, implying that what actually does await them is far worse. Yeshua chose the immediate context here as the source for the means of punishment he described: A millstone (24:6) is meant to be a means of livelihood, not death, but when people make such egregious choices, YHWH uses what is available to put a stop to such abominations. His way of describing such deterrents is “to burn away the evil from your midst”. (22:22, 24)
And it is not just in situations involving kidnapping; taking the deep emotions that accompany sexuality lightly, even in an initially-above-board situation, brings such deep grief to the One who created us (in such a complex way that evolution could never have “invented”) that He imposes everything from stiff fines to permanent ban on divorce to even capital punishment for toying with something He built so deeply into our psychology. (22:13-29)
All of these show how prescient YHWH was in giving us instructions that could and should have prevented some of the most serious and heartbreaking situations humankind experiences today.
In a world where He has given everyone free will but our first ancestors made a choice that created in all of their descendants a proclivity to selfishness which usually leads to abuse of free will to the detriment of others, YHWH keenly feels the plight of those at a disadvantage because they have lost their livelihood or because others have acquired more power and did not care whether it squashed others in the process. So He has given those who care to listen to Him glimpses into the possible consequences their exercise of free will could have, even if they do not intend to harm anyone else.
Those who want to cooperate with Him and who take His advice can therefore help Him put limits on how far the abuses can be taken. (Compare 25:3) He frequently bases the reason we should accept these limitations on the fact that He freed us from such oppression. (24:18, 22) He does not want us to take away others’ freedoms, even inadvertently. He compares cheating each other with unequal weights and measures to what Amaleq did to us so sneakily. (25:14-18) That in itself should be enough to make us think twice!
He wants those He loves to also love the others whom He loves. He does not want one of His children profiting from another of His children’s neediness (23:20-21) or one of those He loves suffering because another of them does not trust him to pay him back what he lends him (24:10-13) or because he would rather not pay him immediately for work he does for him. (24:14-15)
Why would He want to choose one of those He loves over another? (cf. 25:1) But if we do not take others into consideration in our decisions, He might have to do just that, and the oppressing party just might experience His wrath the way our Egyptian oppressors did. (24:15; cf. 25:12) He shows no favoritism, so listen carefully to His “whole counsel” so we can spare Him any need to ever do that!
Cut the Nonsense!
In this portion, YHWH precludes the loopholes He knew we would try to get away with--partly from our ancestors’ actions, partly because He created human nature and knows where it lends itself to being corrupted most easily. He knows what changes the forbidden fruit made to our DNA and where we are now innately vulnerable to temptation to let things go as they were going before the Flood, when somehow it got to the point that every human thought and intention was on the wrong track.
Since He introduced Torah as the initial solution to avoiding that path, He does not hesitate to go the distance to take advantage of its ability to deter. He nips our plots and excuses, our corner-cutting and misplaced mercy, advancing self at our neighbors’ expense, our petty betrayals and wrongly-based favor in the bud, heading them off by showing that He’s “onto us” from the start, before it can grow to catastrophic proportions. Moshe in turn will not let what he knows to be nonsense get the beginnings of a foothold on His watch.
But what if now, thousands of years later, we have already gone too far down that road for simple correctives to remedy? That’s where the haftarah, from Isaiah 54, comes in. YHWH is eager to forgive, but it must be done justly.
Remember that no Scripture can be interpreted in isolation from its context. This haftarah comes right after the “suffering servant” prophecy of 52:13 through chapter 53, which numerous Renewed Covenant authors (and a great number of other prominent Jewish scholars) interpreted as being about Messiah (even if, as with most prophecies, it could have had an earlier, more immediate interpretation as well, and maybe more than one; it does not have to be “either-or”). (Ref.: Mat. 8:16-17; Mark 15:27-28; Acts 8:27-35; 2 Peter 2:24) Writing him out of Isaiah 53 and other prophecies the Jews used to say were messianic is therefore a recent phenomenon, borne out of either defensive polemics or, the opposite, trying too hard to be tolerant of other views and rid ourselves of exclusiveness.
But why should we be divided over whether the servant is Israel or the Messiah? A detailed study of this will be forthcoming, but read all the “servant” texts straightforwardly and it is clearly both the nation and an individual who, as its king, is its spearhead which lets the rest of the nation, too, jettison our blind spots (42:19) and function in the same way as our head, who accomplished the breakthrough we needed in order to obey where we could not before.
This haftarah follows that immediately, and therefore can rightly be seen as depending on it and speaking of the benefits that will be brought by this suffering servant: Our efforts will no longer be fruitless (54:1). Fear is no longer necessary; hope has a firm foundation and is no longer a pipe dream (54:4), for the resurrection of Messiah has shown that even death can be defeated (compare Heb. 2:14-15); how much more the sin that led to it? The One who cast us out has not only taken us back, but paid a steep price to get us back. (54:5-8) He has even promised that He will never again leave us or forsake us (54:8-10)—again, echoed by the Renewed Covenant (Heb. 13:5), for this is what that covenant is about: restoring the first one after putting it on firmer footing, fool-proof enough for the likes of us.
But this juxtaposition of 53 with 54 also means that these promises can only be claimed because Yeshua, YHWH’s servant, suffered for our wrongs. We could not have them any other way, with the predicament we were in. And they can only be claimed by those who accept the amnesty that has been offered to us and who come back into covenant eager to use his freely-offered empowering to succeed where we once failed--because we now can--and eager to please the One who ever so mercifully dares to again be a husband to a people who betrayed Him in the past. (54:5)
Call guilt guilt! (Deut. 25:1) This redemption is not something to take for granted; it did not come automatically or easily. That’s why an anonymous Hebrew urges us “to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip away…. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Heb. 2:1, 3)
This is not one of the things returning Israelites dare jettison when divesting ourselves of the lies our ancestors bequeathed us. (Jer. 16:19) I tried, and came up empty, knowing something crucial was missing. This is not one of those lies, though some ideas peripheral to it are. Moshe said we’ll be in deep trouble with YHWH if we fail to heed the prophet who is like him. (Dt. 18:19) You can’t return to Him but reject the king He set on Zion’s throne! (Ps. 2:6)
