¹⁸ But keep alive ^(A)for yourselves all the young girls who have not known a man intimately.

Female Captives

¹⁰ “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, ¹¹ and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your ^(A)wife, ¹² then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall ^(B)shave her head and trim her nails. ¹³ She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and ^(C)mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have ^(D)humbled her.

² Then people will take them ^(A)and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, ^(B)and rule over their oppressors.

⁸ And the children of Israel carried away captive of their ^(A)brethren two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters; and they also took away much ^[a]spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.

Israel Returns the Captives

⁹ But a ^(B)prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out before the army that came to Samaria, and said to them: “Look, ^(C)because the Lord God of your fathers was angry with Judah, He has delivered them into your hand; but you have killed them in a rage that ^(D)reaches up to heaven. ¹⁰ And now you propose to force the children of Judah and Jerusalem to be your ^(E)male and female slaves; but are you not also guilty before the Lord your God?

¹⁴ But the women, the little ones, ^(A)the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and ^(B)you shall eat the enemies’ plunder which the Lord your God gives you.

⁴⁴ And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.