^22:20But if the accusation is true and the young woman was not a virgin, ^22:21the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing³⁶ in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father’s house. In this way you will purge³⁷ evil from among you.

^22:22If a man is caught having sexual relations with³⁸ a married woman³⁹ both the man who had relations with the woman and the woman herself must die; in this way you will purge⁴⁰ evil from Israel.

^22:23If a virgin is engaged to a man and another man meets⁴¹ her in the city and has sexual relations with⁴² her, ^22:24you must bring the two of them to the gate of that city and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry out though in the city and the man because he violated⁴³ his neighbor’s fiancée;⁴⁴ in this way you will purge⁴⁵ evil from among you. ^22:25But if the man came across⁴⁶ the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped⁴⁷ her, then only the rapist⁴⁸ must die. ^22:26You must not do anything to the young woman—she has done nothing deserving of death. This case is the same as when someone attacks another person⁴⁹ and murders him, ^22:27for the man⁵⁰ met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

^22:28Suppose a man comes across a virgin who is not engaged and overpowers and rapes⁵¹ her and they are discovered. ^22:29The man who has raped her must pay her father fifty shekels of silver and she must become his wife because he has violated her; he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

^{22:30 (23:1)}⁵² A man may not marry⁵³ his father’s former⁵⁴ wife and in this way dishonor his father.⁵⁵

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Footnotes

36 The Hebrew term נְבָלָה (névalah) means more than just something stupid. It refers to a moral lapse so serious as to jeopardize the whole covenant community (cf. Gen 34:7; Judg 19:23; 20:6, 10; Jer 29:23). See C. Pan, 3:. Cf. “she committed a crime against Israel.”
37 Heb “burn.” See note on .
38 Heb “lying with” (so , ), a Hebrew idiom for sexual relations.
39 Heb “a woman married to a husband.”
40 Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in .
41 Heb “finds.”
42 Heb “lies with.”
43 Heb “humbled.”
44 Heb “wife.”
45 Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in .
46 Heb “found,” also in vv. 27, 28.
47 Heb “lay with” here refers to a forced sexual relationship, as the accompanying verb “seized” (חָזַק, khazaq) makes clear.
48 Heb “the man who lay with her, only him.”
49 Heb “his neighbor.”
50 Heb “he”; the referent (the man who attacked the woman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
51 Heb “lies with.”
52 Beginning with 22:30, the verse numbers through 23:25 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (), with 22:30 = 23:1 , 23:1 = 23:2 , 23:2 = 23:3 , etc., through 23:25 = 23:26 . With 24:1 the verse numbers in the and are again the same.
53 Heb “take.” In context this refers to marriage, as in the older English expression “take a wife.”
54 This presupposes either the death of the father or their divorce since it would be impossible for one to marry his stepmother while his father was still married to her.
55 Heb “uncover his father’s skirt” (so , ). This appears to be a circumlocution for describing the dishonor that would come to a father by having his own son share his wife’s sexuality (cf. , “dishonor his father’s bed”).