Deuteronomy 22:23

23 When a damsel that is a virgin is betrothed unto a husband and a man finds her in the city and lies 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.


FOOTNOTES:

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

Deuteronomy 22:23 In-Context

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, and she shall die because she has wrought folly in Israel, to fornicate in her father’s house; so shalt thou put evil away from among you.
22 If a man is 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 put away evil from Israel.
23 When a damsel that is a virgin is betrothed unto a husband and a man finds her in the city and lies with her,
24 then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones, and they shall die; the damsel because she did not cry out, being in the city, and the man because he has humbled his neighbour’s wife; so thou shalt put away evil from among you.
25 But if the man found a betrothed damsel in the field and the man forced her and lay with her; then only the man that lay with her shall die;
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010