Deuteronomy 21:14

Summary

Deuteronomy 21:14 states the legal consequence if a man no longer wants the woman described in the preceding verses: he must release her freely, may not sell her for money, and may not treat her as a slave, because he has already humbled her.

Key words

• chafatzta ("you delight", H2654A) — qal perfect, 2nd masc. sg.; describes a completed state of desire/preference, negated to express lack of continued attachment.
• shilachta ("you will let go", H7971H) — piel sequential perfect; the piel stem intensifies the sending-away, marking a formal, deliberate release rather than a casual departure.
• le-nafshah ("for her self", H5315L construct + suffix) — literally "to/for her soul/self," an idiom indicating that she goes according to her own will, without further claim on her.
• makhor lo-timkerennah (H4376 infinitive absolute + H4376 imperfect negated) — the infinitive absolute before the negated imperfect creates emphatic prohibition: "selling, you shall not sell her," underscoring total exclusion of monetary exchange.
• tit'amer ("you will treat as a slave", H6014B) — hithpael imperfect; the reflexive/intensive hithpael stem suggests self-directed or repeated assertion of mastery, i.e., establishing yourself as her master.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative ve-hayah ("and it will be", H1961) marking a new case within the legal sequence, followed by a conditional clause using im ("if", H0518A) and negated chafatzta. The apodosis unfolds in a chain of sequential perfects and imperfects typical of legal casuistic style: first ve-shilachtah le-nafshah ("and you shall send her away for herself"), then two parallel prohibitions built on repeated lo ("not", H3808) — one using the infinitive-absolute-plus-imperfect construction for emphasis (makhor lo-timkerennah), the other a plain imperfect negation (lo tit'amer bah). The clause closes with tachat asher ("because that", H8478J + H0834A) introducing the causal ground: initah ("you have humbled her", H6031B, piel perfect), explaining why these restrictions apply — the prior act of humbling limits what the man may now do to her.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds ἐλευθέραν ("free") after "you will send her away," making explicit what the Hebrew idiom le-nafshah ("for her self") implies contextually but does not state directly with a word for "free." For tit'amer ("treat as a slave", H6014B), the LXX uses ἀθετήσεις ("you will reject/set at nought"), a different semantic focus than slavery, while the Vulgate renders it "opprimere per potentiam" ("oppress by power"), emphasizing coercive force rather than the status of slavery indicated by the Hebrew root's derivation.