Deuteronomy 22:8-18

8 "When you build a new house then you shall make a parapet wall for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house {if anyone should fall from it}.
9 "You shall not sow your vineyard [with] differing kinds [of seed], so that you shall not forfeit {the whole harvest}, [both] the seed that you sowed and the yield of the vineyard.
10 "You shall not plow with an ox and with a donkey [yoked] together.
11 "You shall not wear woven material [made of] wool and linen [mixed] together.
12 "You shall make tassels for yourselves on the four corners of your clothing with which you cover [yourself].
13 "If a man takes a woman and {he has sex with her}, but [he] then {dislikes her},
14 and {he accuses her falsely}, and {he defames her}, and he says 'This woman I took and I lay with her and {I discovered that she was not a virgin},'
15 then [in defense] the father of the young woman shall take, along with her mother, and [together] they must bring out the [evidence of] the virginity of the young woman [to display it] to the elders of the city {at the city gate}.
16 And [then] the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter to this man as wife, but he [now] {dislikes} her,
17 and now look {he has accused her falsely}, saying, "I did not find {your daughter a virgin}," but here [is] [evidence of] the virginity of my daughter'; and they shall spread the cloth [out] {before} the elders of the city.
18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man, and they shall discipline him.

Deuteronomy 22:8-18 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.

Footnotes 15

  • [a]. Hebrew "and"
  • [b]. Or "fence/rail"
  • [c]. Literally "if should fall the falling from it"
  • [d]. Literally "the entire fullness"
  • [e]. Hebrew "for you"
  • [f]. Literally "and he goes unto her"
  • [g]. Literally "hates her"
  • [h]. Literally "he puts to her deeds of words"
  • [i]. Literally "he brings forth against her a bad name"
  • [j]. Literally "I found not with her virginity"
  • [k]. Literally "toward the city gate"
  • [l]. Literally "hates"
  • [m]. Literally "he put deeds of words"
  • [n]. Literally "to your daughter virginity"
  • [o]. Literally "to the face of"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.