What Does Deuteronomy 24:5 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
“cheer up” 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 shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.THE THREAD
Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.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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