Deuteronomy 22:20

20 But if this thing shall be true, [and the tokens of] virginity be not found for the damsel:

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

19 And they shall amerce him in a hundred [shekels] of silver, and give [them] to the father of the damsel, because he hath brought an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.

20 But if this thing shall be true, [and the tokens of] virginity be not found for the damsel:

21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she may die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to be guilty of lewdness in her father's house: so shalt thou remove evil from among you.

22 If a man shall be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, [both] the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou remove evil from Israel.