Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 21:12
Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
12. to thine house ] Lit. to the midst of thy household.
shave her head, and pare her nails ] Heb. make or dress her nails (2Sa 19:24 with feet and beard). Berth. thinks these duties are part of the following mourning, the cutting off of hair being a mourning rite (Deu 14:1, Ethn. Ber., 427). But because she has to do this at once and at the same time put off the raiment she was taken in, it is more probable that all three are required as elements in her purification from heathenism (so most commentators); see above, pp. 243 f. On similar customs among Arabs, cp. W. R. Smith, Kinship, etc., 178, OTJC 2 , 368, Wellh., Reste Arab. Heid. 156.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The shaving the head (a customary sign of purification, Lev 14:8; Num 8:7), and the putting away the garment of her captivity, were designed to signify the translation of the woman from the state of a pagan and a slave to that of a wife among the covenant-people. Consistency required that she should pare (dress, compare 2Sa 19:24), not suffer to grow, her nails; and thus, so far as possible, lay aside everything belonging to her condition as an alien.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. She shall shave her head] This was in token of her renouncing her religion, and becoming a proselyte to that of the Jews. This is still a custom in the East; when a Christian turns Mohammedan his head is shaven, and he is carried through the city crying, [Arabic] la alahila allah we Mohammed resooli Allah; “There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God.”
Pare her nails] veasethah eth tsipporneyha, “she shall make her nails.” Now whether this signifies paring or letting them grow, is greatly doubted among learned men. Possibly it means neither, but colouring the nails, staining them red with the hennah, which is much practised in India to the present day, and which was undoubtedly practised among the ancient Egyptians, as is evident from the nails of mummies which are found thus stained. The hennah, according to Hasselquist, grows in India, and in Upper and Lower Egypt; it flowers from May to August. The manner of using it is this: the leaves are powdered, and made into a paste with water: they bind this paste on the nails of their fingers and toes, and let it stand on all night; in the morning they are found to be of a beautiful reddish yellow, and this lasts three weeks or a month, after which they renew the application. They often stain the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet in the same way, as appears from many paintings of eastern ladies done in India and Persia, which now lie before me. This staining the soles of the feet with the hennah is probably meant in 2Sa 19:24: Mephibosheth had not dressed (literally made) his feet – they had not been thus coloured.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Either,
1. To take off his affections from her by rendering her uncomely and deformed; but then the last words must not be rendered shall
pare her nails, but shall nourish them, or suffer them to grow, as the Chaldee, Arabic, and divers of the learned Jews and other interpreters render it. Or,
2. To express her sorrow for the loss of her father and mother, as it follows, Deu 21:13, it being the ancient custom of mourners in most nations to shave themselves, and in some to pare their nails, in others to suffer them to grow. Or rather,
3. In token of her renouncing her heathenish idolatry and superstition, and of her becoming a new woman, and embracing the true religion; which her captive condition and subjection to his will would make her inclinable to do in profession.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house,…. In order to make her his wife, after some things were done here directed to; for this is not to be understood of his taking her home with a view to defile her, as Maimonides e interprets it; who observes, that when a man’s lust so rages that he cannot subdue it, yet he ought not publicly to satisfy his lust, but to have the woman into a private and secret place, as it is said,
thou shalt bring her into the midst of thine house; nor was he permitted to lie with her in the camp, nor was it lawful for him to defile her a second time, until her mourning was at an end; though elsewhere f he gives a different sense of this passage, and supposes the man to have lain with the captive woman, before the introduction of her into his house; for it is a notion that prevails with the Jewish writers, that an Israelitish soldier might lie once with an Heathen woman taken captive, to gratify his lust, but might not repeat it; so it is said in the Talmud g; yet it must be observed, that there are some, though but few, who are of opinion that the first congress was unlawful, and that he might not touch her until certain conditions were fulfilled, and they were married, as R. Jochanan h; and which is embraced, supported, and defended by Abarbinel on the place, and in which he is undoubtedly right; and so it is understood by Josephus i and Philo k; for this law gives no liberty nor countenance to the violation of the beautiful captive. The plain meaning is, that when a Jewish soldier was passionately in love with a captive, and was desirous of making her his wife, he was to take her home to his house, where she was to remain, to see whether his passion of love would subside, or the woman become a proselyte, or however till certain rites were observed, and then he was permitted to marry her:
and she shall shave her head; either that she might be the less engaging, her flowing locks, or plaited hair, or modish headdress, being removed from her, which had served to excite a passion for her; or as a token of mourning for her present afflicted state and condition; and in afflicted circumstances it was usual to shave the head; see Job 1:20; and though it was forbidden the Israelites, yet not Gentiles; De 14:1
and pare her nails; this and the former some think were ordered to make her fit to be his wife, and were a sort of purification of her, and an emblem of her having renounced Heathenism, and having departed from it, and laid aside all superfluity of former naughtiness; but this phrase is interpreted in the Targum of Onkelos, “let her nails grow”; and so the Arabic version: and this the Jewish writers say was ordered to be done, that she might appear ugly and disagreeable to him, and be abhorred by him; so Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Ben Melech; the same is observed by Maimonides l, and is the sense of R. Akiba m. Another of their writers n think it refers to a custom in some nations to dye their nails.
“The daughters of the Heathens (he says) used to adorn the nails of their hands and feet, and dye them with various colours, according to the custom of the Ishmaelites (or Turks); that there might be a variety in their hands, and men might look at them, take them and handle them until the fire of hell, and an evil concupiscence, burned; wherefore this is ordered that they might let them grow, without any preparation or die.”
But perhaps this neglect of their nails, and suffering them to grow, was in token of mourning as well as shaving the head, as also sometimes even paring the nails was done on the same account.
e Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 41. f Hilchot Melachim, c. 8. sect. 2. g T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 21. 2. h Apud Abarbinel in loc. & R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 14. 1. i Antiqu. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 23. k De Charitate, p. 706. l Ut supra. (Hilchot Melachim, c. 8.) sect. 5. m In T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 48. 2. n R. Abraham Seba in Tzeror Hammor, fol. 146. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When the woman was taken home to the house of the man who had loved her, she was to shave her head, and make, i.e., cut, her nails (cf. 2Sa 19:25), – both customary signs of purification (on this signification of the cutting of the hair, see Lev 14:8 and Num 8:7), – as symbols of her passing out of the state of a slave, and of her reception into the fellowship of the covenant nation. This is perfectly obvious in her laying aside her prisoner’s clothes. After putting off the signs of captivity, she was to sit (dwell) in the house, and bewail her father and mother for a month, i.e., console herself for her separation from her parents, whom she had lost, that she might be able to forget her people and her father’s house (Psa 45:11), and give herself up henceforth in love to her husband with an undivided heart. The intention of these laws was not to protect the woman against any outbreak of rude passion on the part of the man, but rather to give her time and leisure to loosen herself inwardly from the natural fellowship of her nation and kindred, and to acquire affection towards the fellowship of the people of God, into which she had entered against her will, that her heart might cherish love to the God of Israel, who had given her favour in the eyes of her master, and had taken from her the misery and reproach of slavery. But her master becoming her husband, she entered into the rights of a daughter of Israel, who had been sold by her father to a man to be his wife (Exo 21:7.). If after this her husband should find no pleasure in her, he was to let her go , i.e., at her free will, and not sell her for money (cf. Exo 21:8). “ Thou shalt not put constraint upon her, because thou hast humbled her.” , which only occurs again in Deu 24:7, probably signifies to throw oneself upon a person, to practise violence towards him (cf. Ges. thes. p. 1046).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
12. She shall shave her head, and pare her nails These were signs of purification to be understood, as Keil expresses it, as “symbols of her passing out of the state of a slave and her reception into the fellowship of the covenant nation.” Comp. Lev 14:8; Num 8:7.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 12. She shall shave her head, and pare her nails Shaving the head was one of the external signs of mourning. See Lev 19:27; Lev 21:15. St. Jerome, and others, however, understand this shaving as a species of purification, and an abjuration of paganism. Paring the nails seems to have been also done in mourning. In the original it is, shall make her nails, which some understand of letting them grow; and this seems to us more suitable to a state of mourning; but the fashion of countries, as Calmet has well observed, must entirely determine; for we are told, that in some parts of America the women esteem it a beauty to have long nails; so that among them to pare the nails would be a sign of mourning; and this too is the case among the Chinese. Indeed, the custom of having long nails was common in Europe not above two ages ago.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Deu 21:12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
Ver. 12. And she shall shave her head. ] In token that she must renounce her heathenism, and lead a new and holy life. And if she thus consented to marry, she saved her life by it; so do those their souls that consent to Christ, casting away their transgressions, and paring off their superfluities, by the constant practice of mortification.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
and she shall: This was in token of renouncing her religion, and becoming a proselyte to that of the Jews. This is still a custom in the East: When a Christian turns Mohammedan, his head is shaved, and he is carried through the city, crying, la eelah eela allah wemochammed resoolullahee, “There is no God but the God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God.” 1Co 11:6; Eph 4:22
pare her nails: or, suffer to grow, Heb. make, or dress, Weasethah eth tzipparneyha, “and she shall make her nails;” i.e., probably neither paring nor letting them grow, but dressing or beautifying them as the Eastern women still do by tinging them with the leaves of an odoriferous plant called alhenna, which Hasselquist (p. 246) informs us, “grows in India and in upper and lower Egypt, flowering from May to August. The leaves are pulverized and made into a paste with water: they bind this paste on the nails of their hands and feet, and keep it on all night. This gives them a deep yellow, which is greatly admired by Eastern nations. The colour lasts for three or four weeks before there is occasion to renew it. The custom is so ancient in Egypt, that I have seen the nails of mummies dyed in this manner.
Reciprocal: 2Sa 19:24 – dressed his feet 1Co 11:5 – shaven
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 21:12-13. She shall shave her head This was one of the external signs of mourning, Lev 19:27; Lev 21:5. Shall pare her nails This also seems to have been done in mourning. In the original it is, Shall make her nails, which may be understood of letting her nails grow, which to us seems more suitable to a state of mourning. But this is to be resolved entirely into the fashion of countries. Poole thinks that both of these things were rather to be done in token of her renouncing her heathenish idolatry and superstition, and of her becoming a new woman, and embracing the true religion. She shall put the raiment of her captivity off from her
That is, as the French renders the words more clearly, the raiment which she wore when she was taken captive. Instead of the fine clothes wherein she had been taken captive, she was to put on sordid apparel, which was the habit of mourners. And shall bewail her father and her mother Either their death, or, which was in effect the same, her final separation from them, being now to forget all her former relations.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
21:12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; {d} and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
(d) Signifying that her former life must be changed before she could be joined to the people of God.