“Let him return home from war”
Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. (Deuteronomy 20:5 BSB)
What it sounds like today
An odd military rule letting soldiers skip the fight.
The cultural key
These pre-battle exemptions reveal a surprisingly humane view of war and life. As the army mustered, the officers publicly released several classes of men from fighting: anyone who had built a new house but not yet 'dedicated' (moved into and enjoyed) it, anyone who had planted a vineyard but not yet eaten its fruit, and anyone betrothed but not yet married, plus, the next verses add, anyone who was simply 'afraid and fainthearted,' lest he demoralize the others. The logic is tender: it would be a bitter injustice for a man to die in battle just before tasting the life he had begun, someone else moving into his house, harvesting his vineyard, marrying his bride. God's people were not to grind up their young men as mere cannon fodder; a man's stake in ordinary joys, home, harvest, and marriage, was weighed against the demands of war. A modern reader sees a strange loophole; the first hearers heard a military law shot through with compassion for the individual soldier's life.
Recovered meaning
Before battle, men who had a new house, a young vineyard, or a bride they had not yet enjoyed (and later, the fearful) were sent home, so no one would die just before tasting the life he had begun. It is a strikingly humane draft law.