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.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 5. Captains. Hebrew “shoterim, (Septuagint grammateis,) shall proclaim to the people.” Whether these were the chief officers, or only heralds, does not appear. Calmet.—They were probably the priests attached to the army, verse 2. See Calmet. 1:15. Bible.—Dedicate it. Hebrew “begin to use it,” on which occasion a feast was made. Jans.—Psalms 29 seems to have been intended for such a solemnity. At the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem great rejoicings were made, 2 Ezra 12:27. Josephus and the Rabbins allow a whole year for the occupation of the house, before the builder or new owner, could be obliged to go to war, in like manner as that term is specified for a person who had lately married a wife. Calmet. 24:5. The ancient Greeks deemed it a great misfortune to leave a house unfinished and a new wife desolate, which was the case of Protesilaus. Homer, Il. i.