The young woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had had relations with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.

Various Laws

“If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and sleeps with her, he must pay a dowry for her to be his wife.

If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the dowry for virgins.

also for his virgin sister who is near to him because she has not had a husband; for her, he may defile himself.

He shall take a wife in her virginity.

A widow, or a divorced woman, or one who is profaned by prostitution, these he shall not take; but rather he is to marry a virgin of his own people,

and he charges her with shameful behavior and publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her to have evidence of virginity,’

then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.

and behold, he has charged her with shameful behavior, saying, “I did not find your daughter to have evidence of virginity.” But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread out the garment before the elders of the city.

and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he is not allowed to divorce her all his days.

“But if this charge is true, and they did not find the girl to have evidence of virginity,

“If there is a girl who is a virgin betrothed to a man, and another man finds her in the city and sleeps with her,

“If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and has sexual relations with her, and they are discovered,

Outside the sword will make them childless, And inside, terror— Both young man and virgin, The nursing child with the man of gray hair.

And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me; allow me two months, so that I may go to the mountains and weep because of my virginity, I and my friends.”

Then he said, “Go.” So he let her go for two months; and she left with her friends, and wept on the mountains because of her virginity.

Here is my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine. Please let me bring them out, then rape them and do to them whatever you wish. But do not commit this act of vile sin against this man.”

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known a man by sleeping with him; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

But Amnon was so frustrated on account of his sister Tamar that he made himself ill, for she was a virgin, and it seemed too difficult to Amnon to do anything to her.

Now she had on a long-sleeved garment; for this is how the virgin daughters of the king dressed themselves in robes. Then his attendant took her out and locked the door behind her.

So his servants said to him, “Have them search for a young virgin for my lord the king, and have her attend the king and become his nurse; and have her lie on your chest, so that my lord the king may keep warm.”

This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: ‘She, the virgin daughter of Zion, has shown contempt for you and mocked you; She, the daughter of Jerusalem, has shaken her head behind you!

So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or frail; He handed them all over to him.

Then the king’s attendants, who served him, said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king.

And may the king appoint overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom, and have them bring every beautiful young virgin to the citadel of Susa, to the harem, into the custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let their cosmetics be given to them.