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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”

Regulations for Sexual Purity

13 “Suppose a man marries a woman, but after sleeping with her, he turns against her 14 and publicly accuses her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘When I married this woman, I discovered she was not a virgin.’ 15 Then the woman’s father and mother must bring the proof of her virginity to the elders as they hold court at the town gate. 16 Her father must say to them, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and now he has turned against her. 17 He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, “I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.” But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.’ Then they must spread her bed sheet before the elders. 18 The elders must then take the man and punish him. 19 They must also fine him 100 pieces of silver,[a] which he must pay to the woman’s father because he publicly accused a virgin of Israel of shameful conduct. The woman will then remain the man’s wife, and he may never divorce her.

20 “But suppose the man’s accusations are true, and he can show that she was not a virgin. 21 The woman must be taken to the door of her father’s home, and there the men of the town must stone her to death, for she has committed a disgraceful crime in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her parents’ home. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you.

22 “If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the woman must die. In this way, you will purge Israel of such evil.

23 “Suppose a man meets a young woman, a virgin who is engaged to be married, and he has sexual intercourse with her. If this happens within a town, 24 you must take both of them to the gates of that town and stone them to death. The woman is guilty because she did not scream for help. The man must die because he violated another man’s wife. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you.

25 “But if the man meets the engaged woman out in the country, and he rapes her, then only the man must die. 26 Do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no crime worthy of death. She is as innocent as a murder victim. 27 Since the man raped her out in the country, it must be assumed that she screamed, but there was no one to rescue her.

28 “Suppose a man has intercourse with a young woman who is a virgin but is not engaged to be married. If they are discovered, 29 he must pay her father fifty pieces of silver.[b] Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

30 [c]“A man must not marry his father’s former wife, for this would violate his father.

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Footnotes

  1. 22:19 Hebrew 100 [shekels] of silver, about 2.5 pounds or 1.1 kilograms in weight.
  2. 22:29 Hebrew 50 [shekels] of silver, about 1.25 pounds or 570 grams in weight.
  3. 22:30 Verse 22:30 is numbered 23:1 in Hebrew text.