23 (A)If there is a girl who is a virgin [a]betrothed to a man, and another man finds her in the city and sleeps with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them [b]to death: the girl, because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

25 “But if the man finds the girl who is betrothed in the field, and the man seizes her and [c]rapes her, then only the man who [d]raped her shall die. 26 And you are not to do anything to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, [e]so is this case. 27 When he found her in the field, the betrothed girl [f]cried out, but there was no one to save her.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 22:23 A betrothed couple was considered legally married, but did not yet live together
  2. Deuteronomy 22:24 Lit with stones so that they die
  3. Deuteronomy 22:25 Lit lies down with
  4. Deuteronomy 22:25 Lit lies down with
  5. Deuteronomy 22:26 I.e., she is only a victim
  6. Deuteronomy 22:27 I.e., presumably did so

23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.(A)

25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed,(B) there was no one to rescue her.

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