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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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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 22:13 Literally “and he goes unto her”
  2. Deuteronomy 22:13 Literally “hates her”
  3. Deuteronomy 22:14 Literally “he puts to her deeds of words”
  4. Deuteronomy 22:14 Literally “he brings forth against her a bad name”
  5. Deuteronomy 22:14 Literally “I found not with her virginity”
  6. Deuteronomy 22:15 Literally “toward the city gate”
  7. Deuteronomy 22:16 Literally “hates”
  8. Deuteronomy 22:17 Literally “he put deeds of words”
  9. Deuteronomy 22:17 Literally “to your daughter virginity”
  10. Deuteronomy 22:17 Literally “to the face of”
  11. Deuteronomy 22:19 Literally “for he brought out a bad name against the virgin of Israel”
  12. Deuteronomy 22:19 Literally “and for him she shall become as wife”
  13. Deuteronomy 22:19 Literally “to send her out”
  14. Deuteronomy 22:20 Literally “the thing”
  15. Deuteronomy 22:20 Literally “and they were not found evidence of virginity”
  16. Deuteronomy 22:21 Literally “to play the harlot/to prostitute herself
  17. Deuteronomy 22:22 Literally “with a woman, a young woman of a husband”
  18. Deuteronomy 22:22 Literally “also/even the two of them”
  19. Deuteronomy 22:24 Literally “the two of them”
  20. Deuteronomy 22:24 Literally “because of the fact that”
  21. Deuteronomy 22:25 Literally “he lies down with her”
  22. Deuteronomy 22:25 Or “alone”
  23. Deuteronomy 22:25 Or “slept”
  24. Deuteronomy 22:26 Hebrew “a thing”
  25. Deuteronomy 22:26 Hebrew “to”
  26. Deuteronomy 22:26 Literally “a sin of death”
  27. Deuteronomy 22:26 Literally “for as that”
  28. Deuteronomy 22:26 Literally “a soul/individual person”
  29. Deuteronomy 22:26 Literally “thing/matter”
  30. Deuteronomy 22:27 Hebrew “there was not”
  31. Deuteronomy 22:27 Literally “for her”
  32. Deuteronomy 22:28 Literally “he lies with her”
  33. Deuteronomy 22:29 Literally “the man the one lying with her”
  34. Deuteronomy 22:29 Literally “for/as a wife”
  35. Deuteronomy 22:29 Literally “in place of”
  36. Deuteronomy 22:29 Literally “all of his days”
  37. Deuteronomy 22:30 Deuteronomy 22:30–23:25 in the English Bible is 23:1–26 in the Hebrew Bible
  38. Deuteronomy 22:30 Literally “not he may reveal the skirt of the garment of his father”

Violations of Proper Sexual Conduct

13 “If a man marries a woman, has sexual relations with her, and comes to hate her, 14 and accuses her of shameful conduct, and gives her a bad name, saying, ‘I married this woman and was intimate with her, but I didn’t find any evidence of her virginity,’ 15 the young woman’s father and mother will take the evidence of her virginity and bring it to the city elders at the city gate.(A) 16 The young woman’s father will say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he hates her. 17 He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, “I didn’t find any evidence of your daughter’s virginity,” but here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ They will spread out the cloth before the city elders. 18 Then the elders of that city will take the man and punish him.(B) 19 They will also fine him a hundred silver shekels and give them to the young woman’s father, because that man gave an Israelite virgin a bad name. She will remain his wife; he cannot divorce her as long as he lives. 20 But if this accusation is true and no evidence of the young woman’s virginity is found, 21 they will bring the woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from you.

22 “If a man is discovered having sexual relations with another man’s wife, both the man who had sex with the woman and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. 23 If there is a young woman who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her, 24 take the two of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s fiancée. You must purge the evil from you. 25 But if the man encounters an engaged woman in the open country, and he seizes and rapes her, only the man who raped her must die. 26 Do nothing to the young woman, because she is not guilty of an offense deserving death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. 27 When he found her in the field, the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her. 28 If a man encounters a young woman, a virgin who is not engaged, takes hold of her and rapes her, and they are discovered, 29 the man who raped her is to give the young woman’s father fifty silver shekels, and she will become his wife because he violated her.(C) He cannot divorce her as long as he lives.

30 “A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not violate his father’s marriage bed.[a](D)

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Footnotes

  1. 22:30 Lit not uncover the edge of his father’s garment; Ru 3:9; Ezk 16:8