Crossdressing?
Traslation becomes an enemy and not a friend in this verse which has historically been preached as a prohibiltion of transvestitism. However, the Hebrew word for clothing/garments are not the same word. In the second phrase he uses the word "simlah" which is the general hebrew word for clothing. But in the first phrase the word there is "k liy" which is a much more broad term to refer to produced goods of various kinds. Interestingly the word he uses for "man" is not the general hebrew term "adam" or the specifially maculine word "iysl." Instead he uses the word "geber." The Torah only uses this word 3 other times (Exodus 10:11, 12:37, Numbers 24:3) and in each instance he uses it to refer to "fighting men" as distinguished from elderly men, young boys and all women.
If we assume that men should be translated "fighting man" or "soldier" (as is the Torah's general use of the word) it is not an unreasonable inference to make that the "produced goods" or "articles" of a fighting man is his weapons and armor. In fact we see that "k liy" is often used for just this meaning (see I Samuel 14:1, 31:9-10).
If we assume that a faithful rendering of this text would be..."A woman shall not put on the armor of a soldier, nor a soldier put on the clothes of a woman" we see that the issue here isn't gender identity, but gender role. It is men who are to be the protectors and warriors of Isreal, not women.
We can then make this general statment of the principle behind this command. God has built into his creation an order which include specific roles for each gender. When we disorder God's creation by rejecting our assigned role this is an abomination to God and the results are allways catastrophic and fatal.
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