Deuteronomy 22:26

26 Don't do anything to the girl, because she has not done a sin worthy of death. This is like the person who attacks and murders a neighbor;

Deuteronomy 22:26 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 22:26

But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing
Neither fine her, nor beat her, and much less punish her with death:

there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death;
because what was done to her was done without her will and consent, and was what she was forced to submit unto; but the Targum of Jonathan adds, that the man to whom she was betrothed might dismiss her from himself by a bill of divorce:

for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even
so is this matter;
as when a man comes unawares upon another, and lays hold on him, and kills him, being stronger than he, and none to help; so is the case of a woman laid hold on by a man in a field, and ravished by him, where no help could be had; and depriving a woman of her chastity is like taking away a man's life; from this passage Maimonides ^F3 concludes, that impurities, incests, and adulteries, are equal to murder, to capital cases relating to life and death.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 Hilchot Yesode Hattorah, c. 5. sect. 10.

Deuteronomy 22:26 In-Context

24 you must take both of them to the city gate and put them to death by throwing stones at them. Kill the girl, because she was in a city and did not scream for help. And kill the man for having sexual relations with another man's wife. You must get rid of the evil among you.

25 But if a man meets an engaged girl out in the country and forces her to have sexual relations with him, only the man who had sexual relations with her must be put to death.

26 Don't do anything to the girl, because she has not done a sin worthy of death. This is like the person who attacks and murders a neighbor;

27 the man found the engaged girl in the country and she screamed, but no one was there to save her.

28 If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged to be married and forces her to have sexual relations with him and people find out about it,