Deuteronomy 22:13-30
Laws of Sexual Morality
13 “If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and detests her, 14 and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, ‘I took this woman, and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin,’ 15 then the father and mother of the young woman shall take and bring out the evidence of the young woman’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. 16 And the young woman’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as wife, and he detests her. 17 Now he has charged her with shameful conduct, saying, “I found your daughter was not a virgin,” and yet these are the evidences of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 Then the elders of that city shall take that man and punish him; 19 and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days.
20 “But if the thing is true, and evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman, 21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father’s house. So you shall put away the evil from among you.
22 “If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die—the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel.
23 “If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor’s wife; so you shall put away the evil from among you.
25 “But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. 26 But you shall do nothing to the young woman; there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death, for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter. 27 For he found her in the countryside, and the betrothed young woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.
28 “If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days.
30 “A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor uncover his father’s bed.
These laws of sexual morality in accordance with the word of God address our honesty, morality, and good conscience in these matters. The honesty here was entering into marriage with a woman who claimed to never have had intimacy with another man, but then was proven to have lied to gain a husband as she and her parents claimed she was moral and pure in word and deed yet the evidence showed otherwise. She would be stoned for this sin then. If, however, the evidence provided by her parents proved her innocence and of her virginity and proved the dishonest husband was lying, then restitution was required for shaming and dishonoring the woman’s good name. He would be punished and fined for this dishonest and immoral behavior to hopefully stir his seared conscience (1 Timothy 4:1-2, Ephesians 4:18-19) and keep others from dishonoring the good and moral women among God’s people. All evil was to be put away, even though the punishment then was unequally applied to the man and woman; may we learn from that today and not put the onus on the woman alone as often happens in a world where culture sometimes overruns God’s people into treating sin with a seared conscience and unequal consequences. The consequences for adultery are also covered here, yet in that instance both were held accountable (with the death penalty). Similarly a particular instance is mentioned where a woman is raped away from where others could hear her cries for help contrasted with it happening in an urban setting where she could be heard but did not cry for help as if it might be consensual. In the case where it could not be proven she could be heard, it was assumed to be non-consensual and only the man would be charged. If it was where others could hear but she did not cry out, it was assumed to be consensual and both were held accountable and punished, especially because the man humbled and shamed her husband and did such a thing. In today’s western society, however, such morality and honesty about such affairs often remains because the conscience of people does not find shame or offense to God in such immorality, even with the final example here of two unmarried people (man and woman only, any other combination was considered an abomination to God and man, per Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:26-27, with absolute consequences) caught in sexual immorality where they were penalized and made to marry without the possibility of divorce. Such used to be the general principle in the past in our culture, but that has long since passed as the conscience now is taught to accept dishonesty and immorality as acceptable for personal gain because God is no longer feared or revered. This then is God’s will and word that is now scorned and disobeyed to the dishonest and immoral end of seared consciences. To please our Creator and Sovereign Lord, we must not allow these things in our own lives if we claim to be His people in Christ and choose to truly love and live for Him and not our own passing pleasures (Hebrews 11:25) of sin.
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