Deuteronomy 22:13-30
Modern English Version
Laws About Marriage
13 If any man takes a wife and has sexual relations with her and then rejects her, 14 and accuses her of impropriety and publicly defames her, saying, “I married this woman, but when I had sexual relations with her, I found her not to be a virgin,” 15 then the father and mother of the girl must produce evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. 16 The girl’s father must say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he has rejected her. 17 What is more, he has accused her of impropriety, saying, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ However, this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.” And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 The elders of that city must take that man and punish him, 19 and they must fine him a hundred shekels[a] of silver and give them to the father of the girl, because he has publicly humiliated a virgin of Israel. Then she is to remain his wife. He may not divorce her all his days.
20 But if the accusation is true, and the evidence of virginity does not exist for the girl, 21 then they shall bring the girl out to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones until she dies, because she has brought disgrace into Israel, to act like a whore in her father’s house. In this way you may purge the evil from among you.
22 If a man is discovered lying with a married woman, then both of them must die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman. In this way you may purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a girl who is a virgin is engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and has sexual relations with her, 24 then you must bring them both out to the gate of that city and you must stone them with stones until they die, the girl because she did not cry out even though in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. In this way you may purge the evil from among you.
25 But if a man finds an engaged girl in the field, and the man forces her and rapes her, then only the man that raped her shall die. 26 However, you are to do nothing to the girl. There is no sin worthy of death in the girl, for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this matter. 27 For he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.
28 If a man finds a girl who is a virgin who is not engaged and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, 29 then the man who lay with her must give fifty shekels[b] of silver to the girl’s father, and she shall be his wife because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.
30 A man must not marry his father’s wife and in this way dishonor his father.
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- Deuteronomy 22:19 About 2½ pounds, or 1.2 kilograms.
- Deuteronomy 22:29 About 1¼ pounds, or 575 grams.
Deuteronomy 22:13-30
Lexham English Bible
13 “If a man takes a woman and he has sex with her,[a] but he then dislikes her,[b] 14 and he accuses her falsely,[c] and he defames her,[d] and he says ‘This woman I took and I lay with her and I discovered that she was not a virgin,’[e] 15 then in defense the father of the young woman shall take, along with her mother, and together they must bring out the evidence of the virginity of the young woman to display it to the elders of the city at the city gate.[f] 16 And then the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as wife, but he now dislikes[g] her, 17 and now look he has accused her falsely,[h] saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin,”[i] but here is evidence of the virginity of my daughter’; and they shall spread the cloth out before[j] the elders of the city. 18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man, and they shall discipline him. 19 Then they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and they shall give them to the father of the young woman, for he defamed an Israelite young woman,[k] and she shall become his wife;[l] he will not be allowed to divorce her[m] all his days.
20 “But if this charge[n] was true, and the signs of virginity were not found[o] for the young woman, 21 and then they shall bring out the young woman to the doorway of the house of her father, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, and she shall die, because she did a disgraceful thing in Israel by playing the harlot[p] in the house of her father, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.
22 “If a man is found lying with a married woman,[q] then they shall both die; both of them,[r] the man who lay with the woman and the woman also, so you shall purge the evil from Israel.
23 “If it happens that a young woman, a virgin, is engaged to a man, and a man finds her in the town and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring out both of them[s] to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them with stones so that they shall die, the young woman because she did not cry out in the town, and the man because[t] he violated his neighbor’s wife; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.
25 “But if the man finds the young engaged woman in the field and the man overpowers her and he has sex with her,[u] then the man only[v] must die who lay[w] with her. 26 But you shall not do anything[x] to the young woman, for there is not reckoned against[y] the young woman a sin deserving death;[z] it is similar to when[aa] a man rises up against his neighbor and murders him, a fellow human being,[ab] just so is this case,[ac] 27 for he found her in the field, the engaged young woman cried out, but there was no[ad] rescuer to help her.[ae]
28 “If a man finds a young woman, a virgin who is not engaged, and he seizes her and he has sex with her[af] and they are caught, 29 then the man who lay with her[ag] shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife[ah] because[ai] he violated her, and he is not allowed to divorce her during his lifetime.[aj] 30 [ak] A man may not take the wife of his father, and so he may not dishonor his father.[al]
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- Deuteronomy 22:13 Literally “and he goes unto her”
- Deuteronomy 22:13 Literally “hates her”
- Deuteronomy 22:14 Literally “he puts to her deeds of words”
- Deuteronomy 22:14 Literally “he brings forth against her a bad name”
- Deuteronomy 22:14 Literally “I found not with her virginity”
- Deuteronomy 22:15 Literally “toward the city gate”
- Deuteronomy 22:16 Literally “hates”
- Deuteronomy 22:17 Literally “he put deeds of words”
- Deuteronomy 22:17 Literally “to your daughter virginity”
- Deuteronomy 22:17 Literally “to the face of”
- Deuteronomy 22:19 Literally “for he brought out a bad name against the virgin of Israel”
- Deuteronomy 22:19 Literally “and for him she shall become as wife”
- Deuteronomy 22:19 Literally “to send her out”
- Deuteronomy 22:20 Literally “the thing”
- Deuteronomy 22:20 Literally “and they were not found evidence of virginity”
- Deuteronomy 22:21 Literally “to play the harlot/to prostitute herself”
- Deuteronomy 22:22 Literally “with a woman, a young woman of a husband”
- Deuteronomy 22:22 Literally “also/even the two of them”
- Deuteronomy 22:24 Literally “the two of them”
- Deuteronomy 22:24 Literally “because of the fact that”
- Deuteronomy 22:25 Literally “he lies down with her”
- Deuteronomy 22:25 Or “alone”
- Deuteronomy 22:25 Or “slept”
- Deuteronomy 22:26 Hebrew “a thing”
- Deuteronomy 22:26 Hebrew “to”
- Deuteronomy 22:26 Literally “a sin of death”
- Deuteronomy 22:26 Literally “for as that”
- Deuteronomy 22:26 Literally “a soul/individual person”
- Deuteronomy 22:26 Literally “thing/matter”
- Deuteronomy 22:27 Hebrew “there was not”
- Deuteronomy 22:27 Literally “for her”
- Deuteronomy 22:28 Literally “he lies with her”
- Deuteronomy 22:29 Literally “the man the one lying with her”
- Deuteronomy 22:29 Literally “for/as a wife”
- Deuteronomy 22:29 Literally “in place of”
- Deuteronomy 22:29 Literally “all of his days”
- Deuteronomy 22:30 Deuteronomy 22:30–23:25 in the English Bible is 23:1–26 in the Hebrew Bible
- Deuteronomy 22:30 Literally “not he may reveal the skirt of the garment of his father”
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