Marrying a Captive Woman

¹⁰ When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands^(A) and you take captives,^{(B) 11} if you notice among the captives a beautiful^(C) woman and are attracted to her,^(D) you may take her as your wife. ¹² Bring her into your home and have her shave her head,^(E) trim her nails ¹³ and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month,^(F) then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.^(G)

24 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him^(A) because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce,^(B) gives it to her and sends her from his house, ² and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, ³ and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, ⁴ then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord^(C) your God is giving you as an inheritance.

⁵ If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.^(D)

Marriage Violations

¹³ If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her^(A), dislikes her ¹⁴ and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” ¹⁵ then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate^(B) proof that she was a virgin. ¹⁶ Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. ¹⁷ Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, ¹⁸ and the elders^(C) shall take the man and punish him. ¹⁹ They shall fine him a hundred shekels^[a] of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰ If, however, the charge is true^(D) and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, ²¹ she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing^(E) in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.