Deuteronomy 22:23

23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her,

Deuteronomy 22:23 in Other Translations

23 If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;

23 "If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her,

23 “Suppose a man meets a young woman, a virgin who is engaged to be married, and he has sexual intercourse with her. If this happens within a town,

23 If a man comes upon a virgin in town, a girl who is engaged to another man, and sleeps with her,

23 If there is a young woman who is a virgin engaged to a man, and [another] man encounters her in the city and has sex with her,

Deuteronomy 22:23 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 22:23

If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband,
&c.] But not married, not as yet brought home to her husband's house, and the marriage consummated; for the Jews distinguish between being betrothed or espoused, and married; and generally there was some time between the one and the other. And a wife was obtained in this way by three things; by money, which was the most usual; and by writing, which was to be done before witnesses, and with her consent; and by copulation, which, though valid, was not so much approved of ^F1. There is a whole treatise in the Misnah, called Kiddushin, or Espousals, which largely treats of this matter:

and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;
with her consent, as might be presumed by her not crying out, when, had she, she might have been heard, being in a city; and her being there also makes against her, since, being betrothed to a man, she ought to have abode in her father's house till her husband fetched her home, and not to have gadded abroad in the city, where she was exposed to temptation.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 1.

Deuteronomy 22:23 In-Context

21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.

22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her,

24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.

25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die.