Deuteronomy 22:16-26

16 And the damsel's father shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter to this man for a wife, and he hateth her,

17 And lo, he hath given occasions of speech [against her], saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these [are the tokens of] my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.

18 And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;

19 And they shall amerce him in a hundred [shekels] of silver, and give [them] to the father of the damsel, because he hath brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.

20 But if this thing shall be true, [and the tokens of] virginity be not found for the damsel:

21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she may die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to be guilty of lewdness in her father's house: so shalt thou remove evil from among you.

22 If a man shall be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, [both] the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou remove evil from Israel.

23 If a damsel [that is] a virgin shall be betrothed to a husband, and a man shall find her in the city, and lie with her;

24 Then ye shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they may die; the damsel, because she cried not, [being] in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbor's wife: so thou shalt remove evil from among you.

25 But if a man shall find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man shall force her, and lie with her; then the man only that lay with her shall die:

26 But to the damsel thou shalt do nothing; [there is] in the damsel no sin [worthy] of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbor, and slayeth him, even so [is] this matter:

Deuteronomy 22:16-26 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.