Deuteronomy 22:24

. Sanhedrin, c. 6. sect. 4. John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible. Deuteronomy 22:1 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, Deuteronomy 22:1, forbidding one sex to wear the apparel, of another, Deuteronomy 22:5 and the taking away of the dam with the young found in a bird's nest, Deuteronomy 22:6, ordering battlements to be made in a new house, Deuteronomy 22:8, prohibiting mixtures in sowing, ploughing, and in garments, Deuteronomy 22:9, requiring fringes on the four quarters of a garment, Deuteronomy 22:12, fining a man that slanders his wife, upon producing the tokens of her virginity, Deuteronomy 22:13 but if these cannot be produced, then orders are given that she be put to death, Deuteronomy 22:20, then follow other laws, punishing with death the adulterer and adulteress, and one that hath ravished a betrothed damsel, Deuteronomy 22:22, 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, Deuteronomy 22:28 and another against a man's lying with his father's wife, Deuteronomy 22:30. Ver. 1. Thou shall not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray,....

Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of the city,.... Where the fact was committed; the Targum of Jonathan is,"to the gate of the court of judicature, which is in that city:" and ye shall stone them with stones, that they die; a man that lay with a married woman, he and she were to be strangled; but this sort of adulterers and adulteresses were to be stoned, and it is thought that of this sort was the woman spoken of in John 8:3, the damsel because she cried not, being in the city, and the man because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife; as she was by espousal, by contract, by promise, and so was guilty of adultery, which was punishable with death: so thou shall put away evil from among you; see Deuteronomy 22:21.

Deuteronomy 22:24-27 . She cried not — And therefore is justly presumed to have consented to it. As when a man riseth against his neighbour, even so is this matter — Not an act of choice, but of force and constraint. The damsel cried — Which is in that case to be presumed; charity obliging us to believe the best, till the contrary be manifest.

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].

In connection with the seduction of a virgin (נער, puella, a marriageable girl; בּתוּלה, virgo immaculata, a virgin), two, or really three, cases are distinguished; viz., (1) whether she was betrothed ( Deuteronomy 22:23-27 ), or not betrothed ( Deuteronomy 22:28 , Deuteronomy 22:29 ); (2) if she were betrothed, whether it was (a) in the town ( Deuteronomy 22:23 , Deuteronomy 22:24 ) or (b) in the open field ( Deuteronomy 22:25-27 ) that she had been violated by a man. Deuteronomy 22:23-24 If a betrothed virgin had allowed a man to have intercourse with her (i.e., one who was not her bridegroom), they were both of them, the man and the girl, to be led out to the gate of the town, and stoned that they might die: the girl, because she had not cried in the city, i.e., had not called for help, and consequently was to be regarded as consenting to the deed; the man, because he had humbled his neighbour's wife. The betrothed woman was placed in this respect upon a par with a married woman, and in fact is expressly called a wife in Deuteronomy 22:24. Betrothal was the first step towards marriage, even if it was not a solemn act attested by witnesses. Written agreements of marriage were not introduced till a later period (Tobit 7:14; Tr. Ketuboth i.2).

[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.

[Reformed Biblical] Of divers seeds sown, #Deuteronomy 22:9 . Of ploughing with an ox and ass, #Deuteronomy 22:10 . Of garments of divers colours, #Deuteronomy 22:11 . Of fringes upon the four quarters of a garment, #Deuteronomy 22:12 . The punishment of him that slandereth his wife. #Deuteronomy 22:13-19 . Her punishment if the scandal be true, #Deuteronomy 22:20,21 . The punishment of adultery, #Deuteronomy 22:22-24 ; of rape, #Deuteronomy 22:25-27 ; of fornication, #Deuteronomy 22:28,29 . Against incest, #Deuteronomy 22:30 . ## Ver. 1. Thy brother; so called by communion not of religion, but of nature, as having one Father, even God, #Malachi 2:10 ; as appears, 1. Because the same law is given about their enemy’s ox, &c., ## #Exodus 23:4 . 2. Because else the obligation of this law had been uncertain, seeing men could not ordinarily tell whether the straying ox or sheep belonged to a Jew or to a stranger. 3. Because this was a duty of common justice and charity, which ## the law of nature taught even heathens, and it is absurd to think that the law of God delivered to the Jews should have less charity in it than the law of nature given to the Gentiles. Hide thyself from them, i.e. dissemble or pretend that thou dost not seen them; or neglect or pass them by as if thou hadst not seen them. ## Ver. 2. If thy brother be not nigh unto thee, which may make the duty more troublesome or chargeable. ## If thou know him not; which implies, that if they did know the owner, they should restore it to him.