In the City and in the Field
13 If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, hates her, 14 accuses her of shameful things, gives her a bad name, and says, “I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn’t find in her the tokens of virginity;” 15 then the young lady’s father and mother shall take and bring the tokens of the young lady’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16 The young lady’s father shall tell the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her. 17 Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, ‘I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;’ and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity.” They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him. 19 They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days. 20 But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady, 21 then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you. 22 If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel. 23 If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you. 25 But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die; 26 but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter; 27 for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was no one to save her. 28 If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her and lies with her, and they are found, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady’s father fifty shekels of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. 30 A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.
A husband who slanders his wife is fined and loses the right to divorce her, and a woman who could not be heard is held guiltless.
These are the hardest laws in the code for a modern reader, and they should be read for what they are doing rather than for what they leave undone.
The first case is a husband who tires of his wife and attacks her reputation to be rid of her Deuteronomy 22:13–14. The motive is stated plainly — he hates her — and the accusation is the cheapest weapon available, because it cannot be disproved by argument.
Her parents bring the evidence to the elders, and her father speaks for her Deuteronomy 22:15–17. If the charge is false the man is punished, fined a hundred shekels paid to her father, and — the significant clause — she shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days Deuteronomy 22:19.
He wanted out. He is required to stay, and to support her permanently. In a world where a discarded woman had no livelihood, that is the protection she actually needed, and the man who tried to escape maintenance is locked into it for life.
The corresponding penalty if the charge is true is death Deuteronomy 22:21, and the law is not evenhanded here in a way any modern reader will feel. What can be said is that the surrounding cases show the same code taking real trouble over women's protection, and that the trouble is unusual for its time rather than sufficient for ours.
The adultery ruling puts both parties under the same sentence: they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman Deuteronomy 22:22. Whatever else is true of it, the code does not let the man walk away from a shared act.
The two cases that follow are distinguished by location, and the distinction is entirely about evidence. In the city, both are punished; in the open country, only the man who lay with her shall die, and to the lady you shall do nothing Deuteronomy 22:25–26.
The reasoning is given in full, and it is the most humane passage in the chapter. She is presumed to have cried out and there was no one to save her Deuteronomy 22:27. The absence of witnesses is read in her favor rather than against her.
And the crime is classified: as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter Deuteronomy 22:26. Rape is put in the same category as murder — an assault on a person, not an offense against property or reputation. That is a judgment few ancient codes made, and this one makes it in a single sentence.
held with reason What this mark means