Deuteronomy 21:14

21:14 If you are not pleased with her, then you must let her go ¹  where she pleases. You cannot in any case sell ²  her; ³  you must not take advantage of ⁴  her, since you have already humiliated ⁵  her.

Deuteronomy 22:14

22:14 accusing her of impropriety ⁶  and defaming her reputation ⁷  by saying, “I married this woman but when I had sexual relations ⁸  with her I discovered she was not a virgin!”

Deuteronomy 22:26

22:26 You 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 person ⁹  and murders him,

Deuteronomy 22:29

22:29 The 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.

Deuteronomy 24:1

24:1 If a man marries a woman and she does not please him because he has found something offensive ¹⁰  in her, then he may draw up a divorce document, give it to her, and evict her from his house.

Deuteronomy 25:11

25:11 If two men ¹¹  get into a hand-to-hand fight, and the wife of one of them gets involved to help her husband against his attacker, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals, ¹² 

Deuteronomy 28:57

28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ¹³  and her newborn children ¹⁴  (since she has nothing else), ¹⁵  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

---

¹ sn Heb “send her off.” The Hebrew term שִׁלַּחְתָּה (shillakhtah) is a somewhat euphemistic way of referring to divorce, the matter clearly in view here (cf. Deut 22:19, 29; 24:1, 3; Jer 3:1; Mal 2:16). This passage does not have the matter of divorce as its principal objective, so it should not be understood as endorsing divorce generally. It merely makes the point that if grounds for divorce exist (see Deut 24:1-4), and then divorce ensues, the husband could in no way gain profit from it.

² tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by the words “in any case.”

³ tn The Hebrew text includes “for money.” This phrase has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ tn Or perhaps “must not enslave her” (cf. ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); Heb “[must not] be tyrannical over.”

⁵ sn You have humiliated her. Since divorce was considered rejection, the wife subjected to it would “lose face” in addition to the already humiliating event of having become a wife by force (21:11-13). Furthermore, the Hebrew verb translated “humiliated” here (עָנָה, ’anah), commonly used to speak of rape (cf. Gen 34:2; 2 Sam 13:12, 14, 22, 32; Judg 19:24), likely has sexual overtones as well. The woman may not be enslaved or abused after the divorce because it would be double humiliation (see also E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy [NAC], 291).

⁶ tn Heb “deeds of things”; NRSV “makes up charges against her”; NIV “slanders her.”

⁷ tn Heb “brings against her a bad name”; NIV “gives her a bad name.”

⁸ tn Heb “drew near to her.” This is another Hebrew euphemism for having sexual relations.

⁹ tn Heb “his neighbor.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “nakedness of a thing.” The Hebrew phrase עֶרְוַת דָּבָר (’ervat davar) refers here to some gross sexual impropriety (see note on “indecent” in Deut 23:14). Though the term usually has to do only with indecent exposure of the genitals, it can also include such behavior as adultery (cf. Lev 18:6-18; 20:11, 17, 20-21; Ezek 22:10; 23:29; Hos 2:10).

¹¹ tn Heb “a man and his brother.”

¹² tn Heb “shameful parts.” Besides the inherent indelicacy of what she has done, the woman has also threatened the progenitive capacity of the injured man. The level of specificity given this term in modern translations varies: “private parts” (NAB, NIV, CEV); “genitals” (NASB, NRSV, TEV); “sex organs” (NCV); “testicles” (NLT).

¹³ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

¹⁵ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”