Deuteronomy 22:25

25 "But if the man finds the young engaged woman in the field and the man overpowers her and {he has sex with her}, then the man only must die who lay with her.

Deuteronomy 22:25 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 22:25

But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field
Alone, and where she might cry out, and none hear, nor were any to help her:

and a man force her, and lie with her;
or "take fast and strong hold on her" ^F2; so that she is not able to get out of his hands, and make her escape, he being stronger than she, and so commits a rape upon her:

then the man only that lay with her shall die;
he being guilty of adultery, in lying with a woman espoused to another man, but not she, because she consented not to it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (hb qyzxhw) "et apprehenderit (in) eam", Pagninus, Montanus; "et apprehendens eam", Piscator.

Deuteronomy 22:25 In-Context

23 "If it happens [that] a young woman, a virgin, [is] engaged to a man, [and] a man finds her in the town and lies with her,

24 then you shall bring out {both of them} to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them with stones so that they shall die, the young woman because she did not cry out in the town, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

25 "But if the man finds the young engaged woman in the field and the man overpowers her and {he has sex with her}, then the man only must die who lay with her.

26 But you shall not do anything to the young woman, [for] there is not [reckoned] against the young woman {a sin deserving death}; {it is similar to when} a man rises up against his neighbor and murders him, {a fellow human being}, [just] so [is] this {case},

27 for he found her in the field, the engaged young woman cried out, but there was no rescuer {to help her}.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "he lies down with her"
• [b]. Or "alone"
• [c]. Or "slept"