Misinterpretations often take 'hated' literally as endorsement of spousal abuse rather than its idiomatic sense of 'less loved,' leading to distorted views of marital dynamics; others assume the law promotes polygamy instead of merely regulating it to safeguard the firstborn's rights; or wrongly apply it to modern contexts as a universal rule ignoring its cultural specificity to tribal inheritance practices and primogeniture.
Deuteronomy 21:16
King James Version (1769)
16 Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn:
This passage affirms the unalterable legal right of the true firstborn son to inherit a double portion of the family estate, even if he is the child of the less favored wife, preventing a father from arbitrarily transferring that privilege to a son of the more beloved wife and thereby upholding principles of justice, order, and protection for familial inheritance rights in ancient Israelite society.