Deuteronomy 22:22-23

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

22:23 If a virgin is engaged to a man and another man meets her in the city and has sexual relations with her,

Deuteronomy 22:30

22:30 (23:1) A man may not marry his father’s former wife and in this way dishonor his father.


tn Heb “lying with” (so KJV, NASB), a Hebrew idiom for sexual relations.

tn Heb “a woman married to a husband.”

tn Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in Deut 21:21.

tn Heb “finds.”

tn Heb “lies with.”

sn Beginning with 22:30, the verse numbers through 23:25 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 22:30 ET = 23:1 HT, 23:1 ET = 23:2 HT, 23:2 ET = 23:3 HT, etc., through 23:25 ET = 23:26 HT. With 24:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

tn Heb “take.” In context this refers to marriage, as in the older English expression “take a wife.”

sn 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.

tn Heb “uncover his father’s skirt” (so ASV, NASB). 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. NAB, NIV “dishonor his father’s bed”).