What Does Deuteronomy 24:5 Mean?
When a man takes a new wife, he does not go out to war, and no matter passes over him. He is free at home one year, and he gladdens the wife he has taken.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.THE KEY
Here, a wife’s gladness is the purpose that war and public business must yield to.
THE MEANING
A newly formed marriage receives a year in which the man is clear of war and other business, free at home with his wife. His presence is directed toward making her glad. The verse treats shared joy as worthy of protected time.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a new marriage must wait behind public duty: here, war and ordinary business wait.
THE ROOT
וְשִׂמַּח
ve-simmaḥ make glad
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ח
ś-m-ḥ
Rejoice, be glad, or make glad.
“gladdens” in this verse is ve-simmaḥ make glad. The Hebrew verb means making his wife glad, with joy itself at the center of the year at home. The verse pairs release from outside duties with a positive purpose: his presence makes room for her gladness.
ALSO GROWS
simchah: Joy, gladness
שִׂמְחָה
This noun names the joy that the verse’s verb calls him to bring about.
sameach: Glad, rejoicing
שָׂמֵחַ
This adjective describes the state of gladness that the husband is to cultivate in his wife.
נָקִי
naqi clear or
GROWS FROM
נ־ק־ה
n-q-h
Be clean, clear, or acquitted.
The word translated “free” carries the sense of being clear of a claim. The verse makes him clear of other business for his home, giving his presence there a defined place in the year.
ALSO GROWS
yenakkeh: He clears or acquits; he holds guiltless
יְנַקֶּה
This verbal form shows the root’s sense of clearing someone from a claim.
niqqayon: Cleanness, innocence
נִקָּיוֹן
This noun carries the same idea of being clear, which sharpens the force of his being “free” for home.
חֲדָשָׁה
ḥadashah new
GROWS FROM
ח־ד־ש
ḥ-d-sh
Be new or renew.
The “new” wife belongs to a word family that also names renewal and the new moon. The marriage opens a fresh cycle, and the verse gives that beginning a full year of protected attention.
ALSO GROWS
ḥadash: New, fresh, renewed
חָדָשׁ
This adjective shares the root’s sense of newness with the wife at the center of the verse.
ḥodesh: New moon; month
חֹדֶשׁ
The word for month is linked to the new moon, revealing the root’s connection to a fresh cycle.
THE PATTERN
Marriage is treated as a lived union deserving sustained attention and joy.
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.See life with the woman you love, all the days of the life of your vapor, which he gives you under the sun, all the days of your vapor. For this is your portion in your living, and in the toil you toil under the sun.So husbands owe love to their wives, as to their own bodies. The one who loves his wife loves himself.THE THREAD
Draw me, and we will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your love more than wine. The upright love you.Deuteronomy’s וְשִׂמַּח (ve-simmaḥ, “make glad”) and the Song’s וְנִשְׂמְחָה (ve-nismeḥah, “we rejoice”) share the root ש־מ־ח (ś-m-ḥ, joy or gladness). One verse gives a year for a husband to make his wife glad; the other gives shared delight the voice of the lovers.
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