Deuteronomy 22:13-30

Marriage Violations

13 If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her
14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,”
15 then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin.
16 Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her.
17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town,
18 and the elders shall take the man and punish him.
19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels[a] of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
20 If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found,
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.
26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor,
27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,
29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[b] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.[c]

Deuteronomy 22:13-30 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 22

In this chapter are various laws, concerning care of a neighbour's cattle gone astray or in distress, and of anything lost by him, De 22:1-4, forbidding one sex to wear the apparel, of another, De 22:5 and the taking away of the dam with the young found in a bird's nest, De 22:6,7, ordering battlements to be made in a new house, De 22:8, prohibiting mixtures in sowing, ploughing, and in garments, De 22:9-11, requiring fringes on the four quarters of a garment, De 22:12, fining a man that slanders his wife, upon producing the tokens of her virginity, De 22:13-19 but if these cannot be produced, then orders are given that she be put to death, De 22:20-21, then follow other laws, punishing with death the adulterer and adulteress, and one that hath ravished a betrothed damsel, De 22:22-27, amercing a person that lies with a virgin not betrothed and she consenting, and obliging him to marry her, and not suffering him to divorce her, De 22:28-29 and another against a man's lying with his father's wife, De 22:30.

Cross References 11

  • 1. Deuteronomy 24:1
  • 2. S Genesis 23:10
  • 3. Exodus 18:21; Deuteronomy 1:9-18
  • 4. Deuteronomy 17:4
  • 5. S Genesis 34:7; S Genesis 38:24; S Leviticus 19:29; Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 23:17-18; Judges 20:6; 2 Samuel 13:12; 1 Corinthians 5:13*
  • 6. 2 Samuel 11:4
  • 7. S Genesis 38:24; S Exodus 21:12; Leviticus 20:10; Matthew 5:27-28; John 8:5; 1 Corinthians 6:9; Hebrews 13:4
  • 8. ver 21-22; 1 Corinthians 5:13*
  • 9. S Genesis 39:14
  • 10. Exodus 22:16
  • 11. S Genesis 29:29; S Leviticus 18:8; Leviticus 20:11; S Leviticus 20:9; Deuteronomy 27:20; 1 Corinthians 5:1

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. That is, about 2 1/2 pounds or about 1.2 kilograms
  • [b]. That is, about 1 1/4 pounds or about 575 grams
  • [c]. In Hebrew texts this verse (22:30) is numbered 23:1.
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