Deuteronomy 22:30

. 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,....

A man shall not take his father's wife,.... Not marry her, whether his own mother, or a stepmother; or even, as Aben Ezra thinks, anyone that was deflowered by his father. Jarchi interprets it of his father's brother's wife, which he was obliged to marry by virtue of the law in Deuteronomy 25:5 . nor discover his father's skirt; or lie with her his father had thrown his skirt over, or married; and which being the first, is mentioned here as a sample to all the rest forbidden Leviticus 18:7 or, as Bishop Patrick expresses it, is a "short memorandum", to make them careful to observe all the other laws respecting incestuous marriages and copulations there delivered.

Shall not take to wife. So this respects the state, and the next branch speaks of the act only. His father’s wife; his mother-in-law. See Leviticus 18:8 20:11 1 Corinthians 5:1 . His father’s skirt, i.e. the skirt of the mother’s garment, i.e. the nakedness, which is here called his father’s skirt , because his father and mother were one flesh, or because his father alone had the right to uncover it. The phrase is taken from the ancient custom or ceremony of the bridegroom’s spreading the skirt of his garment over the bride, to signify his right to her, and authority over her, and his obligation to the marriage duty. See Ruth 3:9 Ezekiel 16:8 .

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].

30 . (Heb. ch. Deuteronomy 23:1 .) Against Intercourse with a Father’s Wife, cp. Deuteronomy 27:20 , and H, Leviticus 18:8 ; Leviticus 20:11 , where the prohibition is extended to other female relatives. Either D’s law is earlier than H’s or D did not know of H’s. Its limitation to this special case is explained by the fact that such intercourse had been regarded as proof of succession to the father’s property ( 2 Samuel 3:7 ; 2 Samuel 16:22 , 1 Kings 2:22 ) and was become frequent ( Ezekiel 22:10 ); probably the survival of a practice general in early times (but condemned by J, Genesis 35:22 ; Genesis 49:4 ). Thus among the ancient Arabs a man succeeded to his father’s wives along with other heritable property, but this was forbidden by the Korân, iv. 26. For instances in Syria see W. R. Smith, Kinship , etc., 86–90, OTJC 2, 369 f. By § 158 of Ḫammurabi a man caught after his father’s death with a step-mother who has borne children, is cut off from his father’s house; by § 157 incest is punished by burning. Cp. H, Leviticus 18:7 . uncover , etc.] Deuteronomy 27:20 , for the sense see Ruth 3:9 , Ezekiel 16:8 , and cp. the Ar. parallel quoted through W. R. Smith in Driver’s Deut. 259, n . 1.

Of Dishonouring an Unbetrothed Virgin ( Deuteronomy 22:28 f.); while the 6th forbids Marriage with a Father’s Wife (30 [ Deuteronomy 23:1 ]). Of the first five each opens similarly to each of the group Deuteronomy 21:15-23 , i.e. with an if , and differently from those of the group Deuteronomy 22:1-12 , and they share with the former group and with Deuteronomy 19:1-13 , and other laws, these marks:— the elders are the public authority, Deuteronomy 22:15 ff., cp. Deuteronomy 19:12 , Deuteronomy 21:3 ; Deuteronomy 21:19 f.; neighbour (not brother , characteristic of the Sg. passages) is used, Deuteronomy 22:24; Deuteronomy 22:26 , cp. Deuteronomy 19:4 f., Deuteronomy 19:11; Deu 19:14 ; field ( sadeh ) in its wider sense, Deuteronomy 22:25; Deuteronomy 22:27 , cp. Deuteronomy 21:1 ; and sin worthy of death ( ḥeṭ’-maweth ), Deuteronomy 22:26 , cp. Deuteronomy 19:6 , Deuteronomy 21:22 . The direct address to Israel is seldom used, and the form varies. In the closing formulas, Deuteronomy 22:21-22; Deuteronomy 22:24 , it is Sg. and Sg. also in the body of the 4th law, Deuteronomy 22:24 (unless this be editorial), but Sam. LXX have Pl. In the body of the 3rd law, Deuteronomy 22:24 , it is Pl. In considering these plain-spoken laws it is just to remember that with all their imperfections they represent an advance in social ethics; an upward stage in the struggle against debasing practices and the animal passions of men.

(or Deuteronomy 23:1 ) This verse, in which the prohibition of incest is renewed by a repetition of the first provision in the earlier law ( Leviticus 18:7-8 ), is no doubt much better adapted to form the close of the laws of chastity and marriage, than the introduction to the laws which follow concerning the right of citizenship in the congregation of the Lord.

[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.