Deuteronomy 22:20

20 "But if {this charge} was true, {and the signs of virginity were not found} for the young woman,

Deuteronomy 22:20 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 22:20

But if this thing be true
Which the husband of the damsel laid to her charge, that she was no virgin when married to him, and she had committed whoredom, of which there was plain proof:

and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel;
by her parents, or those who had the care of her; or no sufficient reason could be assigned for the want of them, through any family defect, or any disorder of her own; which, as Maimonides ^F26 says, the judges were to inquire into.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Hilchot Ishot, c. 11. sect. 12.

Deuteronomy 22:20 In-Context

18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man, and they shall discipline him.

19 Then they shall fine him [a] hundred [shekels of] silver, and they shall give [them] to the father of the young woman, for {he defamed an Israelite young woman}, and {she shall become his wife}; he will not be allowed {to divorce her} all his days.

20 "But if {this charge} was true, {and the signs of virginity were not found} for the young woman,

21 and [then] they shall bring out the young woman to the doorway of the house of her father, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, and she shall die, because she did a disgraceful thing in Israel {by playing the harlot} [in] the house of her father, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

22 "If a man is found lying {with a married woman}, then they shall both die; {both of them}, the man who lay with the woman and the woman [also], so you shall purge the evil from Israel.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "the thing"
• [b]. Literally "and they were not found [evidence of] virginity"