Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 22:21-27 
Context22:21 the 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 thing 1 in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father’s house. In this way you will purge 2 evil from among you.
22:22 If a man is caught having sexual relations with 3 a married woman 4 both the man who had relations with the woman and the woman herself must die; in this way you will purge 5 evil from Israel.
22:23 If a virgin is engaged to a man and another man meets 6 her in the city and has sexual relations with 7 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 8 his neighbor’s fiancée; 9 in this way you will purge 10 evil from among you. 22:25 But if the man came across 11 the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped 12 her, then only the rapist 13 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 14 and murders him, 22:27 for the man 15 met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.
1 tn The Hebrew term נְבָלָה (nÿvalah) 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, NIDOTTE 3:11-13. Cf. NAB “she committed a crime against Israel.”
2 tn Heb “burn.” See note on Deut 21:21.
3 tn Heb “lying with” (so KJV, NASB), a Hebrew idiom for sexual relations.
4 tn Heb “a woman married to a husband.”
5 tn Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in Deut 21:21.
6 tn Heb “finds.”
7 tn Heb “lies with.”
8 tn Heb “humbled.”
9 tn Heb “wife.”
10 tn Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in Deut 21:21.
11 tn Heb “found,” also in vv. 27, 28.
12 tn Heb “lay with” here refers to a forced sexual relationship, as the accompanying verb “seized” (חָזַק, khazaq) makes clear.
13 tn Heb “the man who lay with her, only him.”
14 tn Heb “his neighbor.”
15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who attacked the woman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
