לא יקח איש את אשת אביו, “a man must not marry a woman who had been the wife of his father;” (even if she had only been raped by his father, and not legally married) This law does not come under the heading of a woman legally married to his father, as the offspring of such a marriage, i.e. the man the Torah speaks about here, would then be a bastard who cannot marry any Jewish woman. If he had done so he would be guilty of the karet penalty, and would forfeit his share in the afterlife. Here we speak of a woman who had been raped by his father, and this is why this verse follows the last verse of the last chapter which dealt with rape, when the penalty had been a financial one payable to the girl’s father. According to the opinion of rabbi Akiva, the karet penalty is sometimes also applicable to violation of commandments where this had not been spelled out. According to the other sages, our paragraph would have to speak of someone sleeping with his aunt while that aunt was awaiting completion of the process of completing the levirate marriage.

ולא יגלה כנף אביו, “and neither is he to uncover his father’s robe.” According to the Talmud, tractate Yevamot, folio 49, what is meant here by the word כנף, is a robe which his father was in the habit of revealing, i.e. a woman with whom his father had indulged in extra marital relations. We find this word in a similar context in Ruth 3,9, where Ruth requests that Boaz, as her late husband’s redeemer become her partner in a levirate marriage.

לא יבא פצוע דכה בקהל ה, someone with crushed private parts must not marry a Jewish woman. Seeing that such a person cannot sire children there is no point in his marrying a Jewish girl who will thus be prevented from becoming a mother.

וכרות שפכה, “or maimed genitals;” this refers to a problem involving transmitting semen to the tip of the penis.

לא יבא ממזר בקהל ה, “a bastard must not marry a Jewish woman;” seeing that he is a product of a union punishable by extinction of its seed, what point is there in such a male impregnating a Jewish woman with his seed?

The definition of a mamzer from the root זר, alien, is someone whose mother was out of bounds to the male who had impregnated her.

לא יבא עמוני ומואבי בקהל ה, “male members of the Ammonite or Moabite peoples must not marry Jewish women. This rule follows the rule about bastard because marriage with both is forbidden forever.

על דבר אשר לא קדמו אתכם, “the reason why male members of the last named two nations may not marry Jewish women is that their forbears did not offer the Israelites who were coming out of Egypt either water to slake their thirst nor bread to still their hunger. If they had offered to sell their water or bread, there still would not have been any reason to be grateful to them for this, as they would have done so out of greed.

לא תדרוש שלומם וטובתם, “do not seek their peace nor their prosperity.” If you will be engaged in war with them it is a duty for you to destroy their cities and property including any fruitbearing trees inside their territory. We find this spelled out by the prophet Elisha in Kings II 3,19 when the Israelites were ordered to attack Moav after the latter had ceased paying taxes to the Kingdom of Israel. This treatment of the Moabites is in direct contrast to other expansionary wars when felling fruit bearing trees is strictly forbidden. Neither were the Israelites at the time allowed to offer peace to the Ammonites or to the Moabites if they decided that they had no other option. (Compare Deuteronomy 20,10 and 19)

לא תתעב אדומי ומצרי, “do not abhor an Edomite for he is your brother, nor an Egyptian for you were a stranger in his land” [in the days of Joseph when no other country was able to provide food and for many years thereafter until they became slaves. Ed.] This verse is written here as the members of these nations could not marry a Jew or Jewess until the third generation after their conversion.

דור שלישי, “the third generation;” at that point the relationship to the original Egyptians, (also generally speaking) is no longer considered as meaningful in the character development of the great-grandson. We know this from Exodus 10,2 where the Torah commands us to familiarise our children and grandchildren with what happened to us in Egypt.[Does the Torah not expect the third generation to relate to matters so long in the past, long before they were born, seriously? If so why were we commanded throughout our history never to forget what Amalek did to our forefathers 100 generations ago? The prophet extends this by one more generation (Yoel 1,3). Ed.].

כי תצא מחנה, “when you go forth in camp, etc.;” this verse was written here as the punitive against Midian was mentioned which had been conducted on account of Bileam’s having caused the Israelites to be seduced into sinning and 24000 had died on account of that. There was a reference to this evil prophet in verse 6 of our chapter.

מקרה לילה, “due to nocturnal emission of semen during the night;” the letter מ in the word מקרה here is a prefix not part of the word itself, just as it is in the word משדה in Leviticus 27,16: משדה אחוזתו, “part of his ancestral field.”

ויתד תהיה לך על אזנך, “you shall have a paddle amongst your weapons;” seeing that only men were going out to fight a war, and seeing that they had the Holy Ark with them when they went to war but were not able to build separating walls, which would have insulated the Ark from exposure to the ritually impure, the people who had nocturnal seminal emissions were required to leave the camp. But when the Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert, there were men, women and children in the camp. Therefore, separating walls were built to separate the Ark and the Tent of meeting from the camp. In the desert those who were ritually impure did not have to leave the camp of the Israelites (but only the camp of the Levites) because of the ever-present danger. In the army everyone had to dig his own hole outside the camp to bury his excrement and cover it, but during the forty years in the desert, everyone dug his own hole in his backyard within the camp of the Israelites.

מתהלך בקרב מחנך, “Who walks in the midst of your camp;” the reference is to the Holy Ark which Moses had made in order for the people to have such an Ark to take with them when going out to war. (Rashi on Deut. 10,1)i

לא תסגיר עבד אל אדניו, “do not hand over to his master a slave who had escaped from him.” This verse was inserted here as it was the habit during wartime that many slaves used the confusion reigning to escape from their masters. [They chose the land of Israel as a favourite destination, as they knew they would be treated there humanely. Ed.]

במקום אשר יבחר, “in a place of his choice;” a place where he could find an opportunity to earn a livelihood.

לא תוננו, “do not treat him unfairly.” The Torah bids us to treat him fairly, just as it had bidden us to treat all aliens fairly, escaped slaves or not.

לא תהיה קדשה, “there must not be Jewish harlots;” the verse is appended here on account of the previous verse having dealt with escaped gentile slaves, many of whom might have been forced to be harlots.

לא תביא אתנן זונה בית ה, “do not bring the payment received for practicing harlotry to the house of the Lord;” this verse is added here as the Torah just warned us not to tolerate Jewish harlots in our midst. The expression אתנן from the root נתן “to give,” means “gift.” It is an expression used exclusively in connection with payments made to harlots. The letter א at the beginning, which appears extraneous, is similar to the letter א in the word אזרוע in Jeremiah 32,21, instead of זרוע for “arm.” We also find such an apparently superfluous letter א in the word אתמול for “yesterday,” which appears more frequently meaning the same as תמול.

לא תשיך לאחיך, “do not charge your brother interest on a loan.” (Brother=fellow Jew) In Leviticus 25,36 we read about this subject as applying to the poor even if he is a resident stranger. Here it is addressed only to fellow Jews, but includes wealthy Jews who are short of cash but not short of saleable assets. The reason that this verse appears here is that seeing we have been warned not to treat escaped gentile slaves unfairly, this does not include that we must extend loans to such people without charging interest.

כי תדור נדר, “When you shall vow a vow, etc.” It is possible that this verse appears here as we read previously (verse 19) about a harlot not being allowed to fulfill a vow she had made to the Lord by using money earned from practicing her trade.

והיה בך חטא, “and you would wind up having committed a punishable sin instead of a good deed.”

מוצא שפתיך תשמור, “that which has come forth from your lips you should observe and do.” “Observe” what you have vowed not to do and “do” what you vowed to do but make sure that you do this for the sake of Heaven.

כאשר נדרת, “as you have vowed, voluntarily.” No one forced you to make such a vow, so that not honouring it, or delay in honouring it is entirely your fault.

כי תבא בכרם רעך, “when you came into your neighbour’s vineyard, etc.” The reason why this subject is discussed here is to contrast it with your having vowed something. When you make a vow it can only be concerning something that you own; when you enter your neighbour’s private property anything you remove comes under the heading of “taking.” (Ibn Ezra) [Ibn Ezra assumes that you have business in your neighbour’s vineyard, seeing you have been hired to help harvest the grapes. Ed.]

ואכלת ענבים כנפשך ,“you may eat as many grapes as you desire;” provided the owner has not specifically forbidden you to do so. (Meiri) The sages disagree about the significance of the sequence in which the Torah’s laws have been written, i.e. if the order implies a legal linkage to what preceded it. According to Rabbi Joseph in the Talmud tractate Yevamot folio 4, the laws in the Book of Deuteronomy are an exception in that even the scholars who hold that elsewhere such a linkage does not exist, concerning such sequences in the Book of Deuteronomy they agree that the order in which these laws have been written are of some legal significance. He quotes as examples all the laws written in these chapters, including even the command to wipe out the memory of what Amalek did to the Israelites when they had come out of Egypt. (Deut.25,19)