Deuteronomy 22:13

_IF ANY MAN TAKE A WIFE, AND GO IN UNTO HER, AND HATE HER,_ If any man take a wife ... The regulations that follow might be imperatively needful in the then situation of the Israelites; and yet it is not necessary that we should curiously and impertinently inquire into usages unknown to the language of civilization. So far was it from being unworthy of God to leave such things upon record, that the enactments must heighten our admiration of His wisdom and goodness in the management of a people so perverse and so given to irregular passions. 'Nor is it a better argument that the Scriptures were not written by inspiration of God to object, that this passage, and others of a like nature, tend to corrupt the imagination, and will be abused by evil-disposed readers, than it is to say that the sun was not created by God, because its light may be abused by wicked men as an assistant in commit...

13._If any man take a wife_. This passage also tends to the exaltation of chastity. God provides against both cases, lest a husband should unjustly bring reproach upon a chaste and innocent young woman, and lest a young woman, having been defiled, should escape punishment, if she pretended to be a virgin. A third object is also to be remarked, viz., that parents were thus admonished to be more careful in watching over their children. This is, indeed, an act of gross brutality, that a husband, wittingly and willingly, should seek a false pretext for divorcing his wife by bringing reproach and infamy upon her; but, since it does not infrequently happen that the libidinous become disgusted with their vices, and then endeavor to rid themselves of them in every way, it was needful to correct this evil, and to prescribe a method whereby the integrity of the woman should be safe from the calumn...

13-30 These and the like regulations might be needful then, and yet it is not necessary that we should curiously examine respecting them. The laws relate to the seventh commandment, laying a restraint upon fleshly lusts which war against the soul....

EXPOSITION REGULATIONS REGARDING CATTLE STRAYED OR THINGS LOST, THE APPAREL OF THE SEXES, THE TAKING OF BIRDS, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES. CONFUSIONS TO BE AVOIDED. FRINGES TO BE MADE ON VESTMENTS. PUNISHMENT OF WIFE-SLANDER, ADULTERY, RAPE, FORNICATION, INCEST....

IF ANY MAN TAKE A WIFE, AND GO IN UNTO HER, AND HATE HER. That is, marries a wife, and cohabits with her as man and wife, and after some time dislikes her, and is desirous of parting with her, and therefore takes the following wicked method to obtain it: this is to be understood of a virgin taken to wife, as the Targum of Jonathan explains it; and what follows confirms it....

18. AGAINST INHUMANITY AND DIFFERENT VIOLATIONS, False Testimony and Sins of Adultery CHAPTER 22 _ 1. Laws against inhumanity (Deuteronomy 22:1)_ 2. Concerning false testimony (Deuteronomy 22:13) 3. Sins of adultery (Deuteronomy 22:22) Laws on the second table are now more fully expounded by Moses. The love to the neighbor is to be expressed by guarding and preserving that which is his property. The strayed and fallen animal belonging to another had to be helped. To leave them in that condition would have been a violation of the law “love thy neighbor as thyself” as well as an act of inhumanity. Another interesting law is the one which forbids woma

SINS AGAINST PURE MARRIAGES. Deuteronomy 22:14. tokens of virginity: their absence is now known not to be necessarily a proof of pre-nuptial unchastity, though the ancient peoples held the contrary, as some peoples do still (see J. D. Michaelis, _The Laws of Moses_, i. p. 478ff.; Burckhardt, _The Bedouins_,_ etc._, p. 62f.; Westermarck, _History of Human Marriage_, p. 123f.). The severe punishment for unchastity before (Deuteronomy 22:21) and after (Deuteronomy 22:22) marriage shows the uncompromising attitude of Dt. towards sexual sins a striking contrast to the prevailing customs of surrounding nations: why the difference?...

_If any man_, etc.] For this opening cp. Deuteronomy 21:15; Deuteronomy 21:18; Deuteronomy 21:22. _Take a wife_, Deuteronomy 21:11, etc. _and hate her_ Note this feature in the case; the man had entered on marriage merely for the satisfaction of his passions, and when this was achieved turned against his wife by a revulsion of feeling known in such characters....

_VER._ 13-17. _IF ANY MAN TAKE A WIFE,_ &C.— The most probable arguments we can meet with, in support of the literal sense of this passage, amount to this; first, That the Jewish young women were married at the age of twelve or thirteen. Secondly, That we are not to judge of the constitution of the human body in other climates, by that of bodies in our own. Thirdly, That, in fact, customs wholly similar to those which Moses insinuates to have been common in his time, and which must have been so among the Jews after his death, are still observable in divers places of the East. Of this, Selden in his Treatise de Uxor. Heb. lib. iii. cap. 1 has collected together many proofs: other writers have multiplied those proofs, particularly Gensius, p. i. c. 9 and p. ii. c. 2. and we have the positive testimony of Leo Africanus, in his _Description of Africa,_ respecting the nuptial ceremonies of th...

k. SEX OFFENSES (Deuteronomy 22:13-30) (1) VIRGINITY OF A BRIDE (Deuteronomy 22:13-21) 13 If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, 14 and lay shameful things to her charge, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came nigh to her, I found not in her the tokens of virginity; 15 then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate; 16 and the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; 17 and, lo, he hath laid shameful things _to her charge,_ saying, I found not in thy daughter the tokens of virginity; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity.