Deuteronomy 22:16-26

16 And the father of the damsel shall say to the elders, I gave this my daughter to this man for a wife;

17 and now he has hated her, and attaches reproachful words to her, saying, I have not found tokens of virginity with thy daughter; and these the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall unfold the garment before the elders of the city.

18 And the elders of that city shall take that man, and shall chastise him,

19 and shall fine him a hundred shekels, and shall give to the father of the damsel, because he has brought forth an evil name against a virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife: he shall never be able to put her away.

20 But if this report be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel;

21 then shall they bring out the damsel to the doors of her father's house, and shall stone her with stones, and she shall die; because she has wrought folly among the children of Israel, to defile the house of her father by whoring: so thou shalt remove the evil one from among you.

22 And if a man be found lying with a woman married to a man, ye shall kill them both, the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou remove the wicked one out of Israel.

23 And if there be a young damsel espoused to a man, and a man should have found her in the city and have lain with her;

24 ye shall bring them both out to the gate of their city, and they shall be stoned with stones, and they shall die; the damsel, because she cried not in the city; and the man, because he humbled his neighbour's spouse: so shalt thou remove the evil one from yourselves.

25 But if a man find in the field a damsel that is betrothed, and he should force her and lie with her, ye shall slay the man that lay with her only.

26 And the damsel has not a sin worthy of death; as if a man should rise up against his neighbour, and slay him, so this thing;

Deuteronomy 22:16-26 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

• [a]. his life.