Deuteronomy 20:5 (WEB)
The officers shall speak to the people, saying, “What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.
Fathers and councils · 1
“…and has not previously inhabited it; or cultivated a newly-planted vine, and not yet partaken of the fruit; or betrothed a virgin, and not yet married her;”—such the humane law orders to be relieved from military service: from military reasons in the first place, lest, bent on their desires, they turn out sluggish…” — editor's note: “These words are more like Philo Judæus, i. 740, than those of Moses, Deut. xx. 5–7.”—Potter.
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