Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 20:9
And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.
9. they shall appoint ] They, not necessarily the officers of the previous clause, but indefinite: those whose duty it is to appoint, or the people as a whole. Cp. 1Ma 3:55 f.
captains of hosts ] The chiefs of the main divisions, cp. 1Ki 2:5. These are not appointed till the host has been sifted of all whom it was not proper to allow to accompany it, because the exemptions apply to all ranks. With these rules for sifting the host, cp. Cromwell’s measures with the recruits for his Ironsides.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The meaning is that the officers should then subdivide the levies, and appoint leaders of the smaller divisions thus constituted.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Or rather, as the Hebrew hath it, they shall set or place the captains of the armies in the head or front of the people under their charge, that they may conduct and manage them, and by their example encourage their soldiers. But it is not likely they had their captains to make or choose when they were just going to battle.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. they shall make captains of thearmies to lead the peopleWhen the exempted parties havewithdrawn, the combatants shall be ranged in order of battle.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people,…. By reciting what the anointed of war said unto them, and by speeches of their own framing, to encourage to the battle; and all were dismissed that had leave to depart, and chose to take it:
that they shall make captains of armies to lead on the people; on to battle; that is, either the officers should do this, which may seem to confirm what has been hinted, that they might be generals of the army, who constituted captains under them, to lead the people on to battle: unless this is to be understood of the princes of Israel, or of the king when they had one, and his ministers; for it does not appear in any instance that the people chose their own officers over them, to go out before them, and lead them on to battle; or “to be at the head of them” z; which the Jewish writers understand in a very different sense; not to head them, or be at the head of them, to direct and command them, but to keep them from deserting: their sense is, that the officers having dismissed persons in the circumstances before described, and set stout men before them, and others behind them (i.e. the army of the people), with iron hatchets in their hands, and every one that sought to return, they had power to cut off his legs; since flight is the beginning of falling before their enemies a.
z “in capite populi”, Pagninus, Montanus. a Misn. ut supra (Sotah, c. 8.), sect. 6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(9) Captains of the armiesi.e., special leaders for the campaigns, whose command would probably cease when it was over. We may suppose from mention of the thousands in the armythe captain of their thousand (1Sa. 17:18)that the military divisions corresponded with the civil organization of the people so far as this, that the men of the same thousand, according to Jethros arrangement, would be brigaded together, and have one captain. If, as is also possible, the word thousand in military language signifies the contingent furnished by a thousand in Israel, irrespective of its number, it would remove many difficulties; for the whole thousand would very rarely be in the field together, and the contingent sent by a given thousand might consist of a very few men. If, therefore, the contingent of sixty thousands were to be described as 60,000, and the sixty companies were all cut up or annihilated, it might be reported as a slaughter of 60,000 men, while the lives actually lost would be nothing like so many.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Captains of the armies to lead the people The shoterim, or officers, after the elimination of the above-ordered army, are to appoint captains to lead the force that is now ready for the contest.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 9. They shall make captains of the armies to lead the people The captains of the armies shall take an account of the sum of the people. Waterland. In this version the Doctor follows Le Clerc. We follow the LXX, which Houbigant much approves. “Moses,” says he, “orders, very appositely, that the commanders should not be appointed before the fearful were allowed to retire; for, had not that been the case, such commanders might have been chosen as were themselves fearful, and who certainly ought to be known before they were invested with command.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
to lead the people: Heb. to be in the head of the people, Deu 20:9
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 20:9. They shall make captains Or rather, as the Hebrew is, they shall set or place the captains of the armies in the head or front of the people under their charge, that they may conduct them, and, by their example, encourage their soldiers. It is not likely they had their captain to make when they were just going to battle.