Deuteronomy 22:21

_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...

13-30 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....

THEN THEY SHALL BRING OUT THE DAMSEL TO THE DOOR OF HER FATHER'S HOUSE,.... For his greater disgrace, and as a sort of punishment for his neglect of her education, not taking care to instruct her, and bring her up in a better manner: AND THE MEN OF HER CITY SHALL STONE HER WITH STONES, THAT SHE DIE; which was the death this sort of adulteresses were put to; others was by strangling, and the daughter of a priest was to be burnt; see Leviticus 20:10, which shows that this sin was committed by her after her espousals, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra note; or otherwise it would have been only simple fornication, which was not punishable with death: BECAUSE SHE HATH WROUGHT FOLLY IN ISRAEL: a sin, as all sin is folly, and especially any notorious one, as this was; and which is aggravated by its being done in Israel, among a people professing the t

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?...

DOOR. entrance. PUT EVIL AWAY. See note on Deuteronomy 13:5....

Charges against a Bride. He who, from a base motive, falsely accuses his wife of unchastity before marriage shall after solemn rebuke from the elders be fined 100 silver-pieces and have his right of divorce withdrawn (Deuteronomy 22:13-19); but if such a charge be true she shall be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:20 f.). No direct address to Israel except in the closing formula which is Sg. The physical evidence, on which the woman is acquitted, was regarded as essential by many ancient races and is still called for and displayed (not only in judicial cases but after all marriages) by certain tribes in Syria, Egypt and Morocco (see further Driver's note; Westermarck, _Hist. of Human Marriage_, 123 f.); but its absence is by no means conclusive proof of a woman's previous unch

_VER._ 21. _THEN THEY SHALL BRING OUT THE DAMSEL,_ &C.— As a disgrace to her parents, who had not taken better care to preserve her chastity, she was to be punished at their door, having committed the crime in their house....

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.