Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them…

“But fruit-bearing trees were to be carefully spared; and, indeed, in warm countries like India, where the people live much more on fruit than we do, the destruction of a fruit tree is considered a sort of sacrilege.”

If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him…

“According to Jewish writers, the Sanhedrin, taking charge of such a case, sent a deputation to examine the neighborhood. They reported to the nearest town to the spot where the body was found.”

And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes.

“If his love should afterwards cool and he become indifferent to her person, he was not to lord it over her, neither to sell her in the slave market, nor retain her in a subordinate condition in his house; but she was to be free…”

If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,

“22, 23. if a man have committed a sin . . . and thou hang him on a tree--Hanging was not a Hebrew form of execution (gibbeting is meant), but the body was not to be left to rot or be a prey to ravenous…”

Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

“Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together--Whether this association, like the mixture of seeds, had been dictated by superstitious motives and the prohibition was symbolical, designed to teach a moral lesson (2Co 6:14), may or may not have been the case.”

No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD.

“He that is wounded . . ., shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord--"To enter into the congregation of the Lord" means either admission to public honors and offices in the Church and State of Israel, or, in the case of foreigners, incorporation…”

When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not put any in your basket.

“In vine-growing countries grapes are amazingly cheap; and we need not wonder, therefore, that all within reach of a person's arm, was free; the quantity plucked was a loss never felt by the proprietor, and it was a kindly privilege afforded to the poor and…”

If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to…

“When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes--It appears that the practice of divorces was at this early period very prevalent amongst the Israelites, who had in all probability become…”

If a man is newly married, he must not be sent to war or be pressed into any duty.

“When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war--This law of exemption was founded on good policy and was favorable to matrimony, as it afforded a full opportunity for the affections of the newly married pair being more firmly…”

Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security.

“No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge--The "upper" stone being concave, covers the "nether" like a lid; and it has a small aperture, through which the corn is poured, as well as a handle by which it is turned.”

Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.

“Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy--Hired servants in the East are paid at the close of the day; and for a master to defraud the laborer of his hire, or to withhold it wrongfully for a night, might have…”

If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it.

“When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field--The grain, pulled up by the roots or cut down with a sickle, was laid in loose sheaves; the fruit of the olive was obtained by striking the branches with long poles; and the grape clusters, severed…”

When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family.

“But the Mosaic law rendered the custom obligatory (Mt 22:25) on younger brothers, or the nearest kinsman, to marry the widow (Ru 4:4), by associating the natural desire of perpetuating a brother's name with the preservation of property in the Hebrew families and tribes.”

You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light. You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small.

“Thou shalt not have . . . divers weights--Weights were anciently made of stone and are frequently used still by Eastern shopkeepers and traders, who take them out of the bag and put them in the balance.”

and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became…

“A Syrian ready to perish was my father--rather, "a wandering Syrian." The ancestors of the Hebrews were nomad shepherds, either Syrians by birth as Abraham, or by long residence as Jacob.”

When you have finished laying aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you are to give it to the Levite, the…

“The first was appropriated to the Levites (Nu 18:21). The second, being the tenth of what remained, was brought to Jerusalem in kind; or it was converted into money, and the owner, on arriving in the capital, purchased sheep, bread, and oil (De 14:22, 23).”

And on the day you cross the Jordan into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, set up large stones and coat them with plaster.

“Stones and even rocks are seen in Egypt and the peninsula of Sinai, containing inscriptions made three thousand years ago, in paint or plaister.”

On that day Moses commanded the people: “When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and…

“These curses attendant on disobedience to the divine will, which had been revealed as a law from heaven, be it observed, are given in the form of a declaration, not a wish, as the words should be rendered, "Cursed is he," and not, "Cursed be…”

The LORD will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.

“The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure--The seasonable supply of the early and latter rain was one of the principal means by which their land was so uncommonly fruitful.”

If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you…

“But . . . if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord--Curses that were to follow them in the event of disobedience are now enumerated, and they are almost exact counterparts of the blessings which were described in the preceding context as…”

Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that…

“Such were the dreadful extremities to which the inhabitants during the siege were reduced that many women sustained a wretched existence by eating the flesh of their own children.”

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of…

“The secret things belong unto the Lord--This verse has no apparent connection with the thread of discourse.”

So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the…

“It was usual in cases of public or private contract for two copies of the engagement to be made--one to be deposited in the national archives or some secure place for reference, should occasion require.”

On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and…

“Then my anger shall be kindled, . . . and I will hide my face from them--an announcement of the withdrawal of the divine favor and protection of which the Shekinah was the symbol and pledge.”

His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the spot on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked generation.

“They have corrupted themselves--that is, the Israelites by their frequent lapses and their inveterate attachment to idolatry.”