Deuteronomy 22:23-29

22:23 If a virgin is engaged to a man and another man meets her in the city and has sexual relations with her, 22:24 you 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 violated his neighbor’s fiancĂ©e; in this way you will purge evil from among you. 22:25 But if the man came across the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped her, then only the rapist must die. 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 and murders him, 22:27 for the man 10  met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

22:28 Suppose a man comes across a virgin who is not engaged and overpowers and rapes 11  her and they are discovered. 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.


tn Heb “finds.”

tn Heb “lies with.”

tn Heb “humbled.”

tn Heb “wife.”

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

tn Heb “found,” also in vv. 27, 28.

tn Heb “lay with” here refers to a forced sexual relationship, as the accompanying verb “seized” (חָזַק, khazaq) makes clear.

tn Heb “the man who lay with her, only him.”

tn Heb “his neighbor.”

10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who attacked the woman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

11 tn Heb “lies with.”