Deuteronomy 22:14

14 and {he accuses her falsely}, and {he defames her}, and he says 'This woman I took and I lay with her and {I discovered that she was not a virgin},'

Deuteronomy 22:14 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 22:14

And give occasions of speech against her
Among her neighbours, who by his behaviour towards her, and by what he says of her, will be led in all company and conversation to traduce her character, and speak of her as a very bad woman:

and bring up an evil name upon her;
take away her good name, and give her a bad one; defame her, and make her appear scandalous and reproachful to all that know her: though the Jews understand this not of private slander, but of bringing an action against her in a public court of judicature, the substance of which follows: "and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid"; the sense is, that he had married her, and when he came to cohabit with her as man and wife, it appeared to him that she was vitiated, and not a pure virgin. This is the charge in court against her, the action laid by him; so Jarchi observes, a man might not say this but before a magistrate, in a court of judicature, which is thus represented by Maimonides F16;

``a man comes to the sanhedrim, and says, this young woman I married, and I did not find her virginities; and when I inquired into the matter, it appeared to me that she had played the whore under me, after I had betrothed her; and these are my witnesses that she played the whore before them.''


FOOTNOTES:

F16 Hilchot Naarah Betulah, c. 3. sect. 6.

Deuteronomy 22:14 In-Context

12 "You shall make tassels for yourselves on the four corners of your clothing with which you cover [yourself].
13 "If a man takes a woman and {he has sex with her}, but [he] then {dislikes her},
14 and {he accuses her falsely}, and {he defames her}, and he says 'This woman I took and I lay with her and {I discovered that she was not a virgin},'
15 then [in defense] the father of the young woman shall take, along with her mother, and [together] they must bring out the [evidence of] the virginity of the young woman [to display it] to the elders of the city {at the city gate}.
16 And [then] the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter to this man as wife, but he [now] {dislikes} her,

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Literally "he puts to her deeds of words"
  • [b]. Literally "he brings forth against her a bad name"
  • [c]. Literally "I found not with her virginity"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.