Deuteronomy 22:21

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.

Deuteronomy 22:21 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 22:21

Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her
father's house
For his greater disgrace, and as a sort of punishment for his neglect of her education, not taking care to instruct her, and bring her up in a better manner:

and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, that she die;
which was the death this sort of adulteresses were put to; others was by strangling, and the daughter of a priest was to be burnt; see ( Leviticus 20:10 ) ( 21:9 ) , which shows that this sin was committed by her after her espousals, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra note; or otherwise it would have been only simple fornication, which was not punishable with death:

because she hath wrought folly in Israel:
a sin, as all sin is folly, and especially any notorious one, as this was; and which is aggravated by its being done in Israel, among a people professing the true religion, and whom God had chosen and separated from all others to be a holy people to himself:

to play the whore in her father's house;
where she continued after her espousals, until she was taken to the house of her husband, to consummate the: marriage; and between the one and the other was this sin committed, and which is another reason for her execution at the door of her father's house:

so shalt thou put evil away from among you;
deter others from it by such an example, and remove the guilt of it from them, which otherwise would lie upon them, if punishment was not inflicted; the Targum of Jonathan interprets it of the putting away of her that did the evil.

Deuteronomy 22:21 In-Context

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.
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,

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Literally "to play the harlot/to prostitute [herself]"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.