Deuteronomy22:13-30 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Deuteronomy 22:13-30. Let’s go!
Deuteronomy 22:13-21 (NIV)
13 If a man takes a wife and, after lying with her, dislikes her
14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,”
15 then the girl’s father and mother shall bring proof that she was a virgin to the town elders at the gate.
16 The girl’s father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her.
17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town,
18 and the elders shall take the man and punish him.
19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the girl’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
20 If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found,
21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.
On verses 13-21: According to the Jewish law, if a man married a woman and publicly questioned her virginity, the woman’s parents were obligated to prove that she was a virgin by presenting a bloodstained cloth or bedsheet to the town elders (v13-17). Upon presentation of the cloth, the elders would punish the man for bringing a false charge against his wife (v18-19). They would punish him by whipping him and also having him pay 100 shekels of silver (double the price a man would pay a bride’s family to marry her in verse 29). So a Jewish man needed to be really sure (and pretty stupid) to lay a false charge against his wife’s sexual purity. But if the charge was true and the girl really was not a virgin, the Jewish law required that she be stoned (v20-21).
What can we learn from this? These verses show that God takes sexual purity before marriage seriously. In the Bible, having sex with someone you are not married to is called fornication or sexual immorality.
That’s why if you have consensually slept with someone you are not married to, you need to repent of that sin. Otherwise, sin will separate you from a life with God. But if we confess our sins, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Praise God that despite every sexual sin we may have committed in the past, in Jesus Christ we all can have a brand new start.
Deuteronomy 22:22-27 (NIV)
22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her,
24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death–the girl because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die.
26 Do nothing to the girl; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders his neighbor,
27 for the man found the girl out in the country, and though the betrothed girl screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
On verses 22-27: Moses’ law also required that if a man slept with a woman who was already married (or engaged) to someone else, both the man and the woman were to be stoned (v22-24). The only exception would be if the woman was raped in which case only the man must die (v25-27).
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 (NIV)
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,
29 he shall pay the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.
On verse 28-29: If a man raped an unmarried woman, he would not be stoned. Instead, he would need to pay the bride price for the woman he raped and the woman would become his wife and he could never divorce her. Does this sound unfair and too light of a punishment for the man? The goal of this law was to help make sure that no man would sleep with a woman unless he was willing to devote the rest of his life to her and pay the price for her. If a man tried to use this law and rape the girl of his dreams in order to have her for life, then that man was foolish and short-sighted indeed.
Lord, today help me to honour the boundaries You have set when it comes to sex. Help me to value sexual purity the way You do. Thank You Lord that after we had committed all sorts of sins against You and against others, it was You who died in our place. You were whipped and crucified like a sinner, even though You had done nothing wrong — all so that we could go free. Thank You, Lord, for paying the highest price so that I could be forgiven and free. No matter what was in my past, thank You that in Jesus Christ I have a brand new start. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
