Deuteronomy 22:21

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, 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.

Quest. Why should she die when her crime was only fornication, which was not punished in a woman with death, Exodus 22:16,17 ? Answ. Because there was not only fornication in this case, as Exo 22 , but this was accompanied with deep dissimulation and injury to her husband in the false profession of virginity, and it might be presumed that she committed this folly after she was betrothed to him, and therefore so obstinately denied it, as knowing the danger of it in that case; or God ordered it thus for the honour and custody of the matrimonial bed from all defilement, that she, who being defiled before she was married or betrothed, and therefore not punishable by death, yet if she should presume to carry her defilement into the married estate with a pretence of virginity, she should then be put to death.

The fine was to be paid to the father, because the slander was against him principally as the head of the wife's family. If the damsel were an orphan the fine reverted to herself. The fact that the penalties attached to bearing false witness against a wife are fixed and comparatively light indicates the low estimation and position of the woman at that time.

13-30. If a man take a wife, &c.—The regulations that follow might be imperatively needful in the then situation of the Israelites; and yet, it is not necessary that we should curiously and impertinently inquire into them. So far was it from being unworthy of God to leave such things upon record, that the enactments must heighten our admiration of His wisdom and goodness in the management of a people so perverse and so given to irregular passions. Nor is it a better argument that the Scriptures were not written by inspiration of God to object that this passage, and others of a like nature, tend to corrupt the imagination and will be abused by evil-disposed readers, than it is to say that the sun was not created by God, because its light may be abused by wicked men as an assistant in committing crimes which they have meditated [Horne].

21 . the door of her father’s house ] Not at the town’s gate (as in other cases, Deuteronomy 22:24 , Deuteronomy 17:5 ), because it was her father’s house which she had dishonoured. Therefore instead of to play the harlot , etc., read with Sam. LXX. turning her father’s house into a harlot’s . folly ] Rather, senselessness . Heb. nebalah from nabal ; ‘very difficult to render in English. “Fool” and “folly” are inadequate … The fault of the nabal is not weakness of reason, but moral and religious insensibility, a rooted incapacity to discern moral and religious relations, leading to an intolerant repudiation in practice of the claims which they impose … The cognate nabluth occurs Hosea 2:10 (12) in the sense of immodesty. Senseless and senselessness may be suggested as fair English equivalents …’ (Driver). folly in Israel ] this phrase, implying the sense of a national ideal and standard, a national conscience, which is found in J, Genesis 34:7 , Joshua 7:15 , and in Jdg 20:6 ; Jdg 20:10 , does not elsewhere occur in D, and is evidence (so far) that we have here an earlier law interpreted by D. so shalt thou put away ] See on Deuteronomy 13:6 (5); and introd. note to this law. Deuteronomy 22:21

Deuteronomy 13:10 . stone him with stones ] Also in Deuteronomy 17:5 , Deuteronomy 21:21 , Deuteronomy 22:21 ; Deuteronomy 22:24 : cp. Joshua 7:25 . This form of capital punishment was natural because of the ready supply of stones on the soil of Palestine, because it was a form in which all the people responsible for its execution could share, and also because of the belief that by covering the corpses the spirits of the dead were also finally laid to rest. For a curious case of the stoning of women who had reviled (or blasphemed) the sun see Musil, Ethn. Ber. 312. to draw thee away ] See on Deuteronomy 13:5 . house of bondmen ] See on Deuteronomy 13:5 . Deuteronomy 13:11 . all Israel ] D’s usual phrase for the people: see on Deuteronomy 4:44 . shall hear, and fear ] Deuteronomy 17:13 , Deuteronomy 19:20 , Deuteronomy 21:21 . do no more ] Sam., LXX add still or again . There is no more reason for taking this verse as secondary (Steuern.) than for taking as such the corresponding clause in Deuteronomy 13:5 ( q.v. ).

In the other case, however, if the man's words were true, and the girl had not been found to be a virgin, the elders were to bring her out before the door of her father's house, and the men of the town were to stone her to death, because she had committed a folly in Israel (cf. Genesis 34:7 ), to commit fornication in her father's house. The punishment of death was to be inflicted upon her, not so much because she had committed fornication, as because notwithstanding this she had allowed a man to marry her as a spotless virgin, and possibly even after her betrothal had gone with another man (cf. Deuteronomy 22:23 , Deuteronomy 22:24 ). There is no ground for thinking of unnatural wantonness, as Knobel does.

In the other case, however, if the man's words were true, and the girl had not been found to be a virgin, the elders were to bring her out before the door of her father's house, and the men of the town were to stone her to death, because she had committed a folly in Israel (cf. Genesis 34:7 ), to commit fornication in her father's house. The punishment of death was to be inflicted upon her, not so much because she had committed fornication, as because notwithstanding this she had allowed a man to marry her as a spotless virgin, and possibly even after her betrothal had gone with another man (cf. Deuteronomy 22:23 , Deuteronomy 22:24 ). There is no ground for thinking of unnatural wantonness, as Knobel does.

[Bible] 22:16. And the father shall say: I gave my daughter unto this man to wife: and because he hateth her, 22:17. He layeth to her charge a very ill name, so as to say: I found not thy daughter a virgin: and behold these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the ancients of the city: 22:18. And the ancients of that city shall take that man, and beat him, 22:19. Condemning him besides in a hundred sicles of silver, which he shall give to the damsel's father, because he hath defamed by a very ill name a virgin of Israel: and he shall have her to wife, and may not put her away all the days of his life. 22:20. But if what he charged her with be true, and virginity be not found in the damsel: 22:21. They shall cast her out of the doors of her father's house, and the men of the city shall stone her to death, and she shall die: because she hath done a wicked thing in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: and thou shalt take away the evil out of the midst of thee. 22:22. If a man lie with another man's wife, they shall both die, that is to say, the adulterer and the adulteress: and thou shalt take away the evil out of Israel. 22:23. If a man have espoused a damsel that is a virgin, and some one find her in the city, and lie with her, 22:24. Thou shalt bring them both out to the gate of that city, and they shall be stoned: the damsel, because she cried not out, being in the city: the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife. And thou shalt take away the evil from the midst of thee. 22:25. But if a man find a damsel that is betrothed, in the field, and taking hold of her, lie with her, he alone shall die: 22:26. The damsel shall suffer nothing, neither is she guilty of death: for as a robber riseth against his brother, and taketh away his life, so also did the damsel suffer: 22:27. She was alone in the field: she cried, and there was no man to help her.