Rectifying Public and Private Wrongs: Each of the five sections of this chapter deals with a situation of human distress or misconduct and seeks either to rectify the wrong or to mitigate its worst effects. We have seen already that this is a characteristic feature of Deuteronomy—part of its “pastoral strategy.” Another feature is that the first and fifth of the laws both require actions that involve removing pollution from the sight of God and from the land.

21:18–21  The fate of the rebellious son. If a son should not suffer because of his father’s whims, then neither should parents (indeed the whole family) suffer because of one son’s incorrigible behavior. This is another law that at first seems harsh. In our modern society, which frowns upon even the simplest forms of corporal punishme…