seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 22:22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Apparently it does because being in the city seems to be deadlier than being in the nice quiet countryside. Apparently people can hear a girl scream for help in the city.
The commentary this morning is from the blueletterbible.org site.
As a practical matter, this death penalty was rarely carried out, as is the case in most of these situation where capital punishment is commanded. This is because any capital crime required two or three witnesses, and the witnesses had to be so sure of what they saw that they were willing to "cast the first stone" - that is, initiate the execution (Deuteronomy 17:6-7).
So, particularly in a case of adultery (or other sexual sins) there would rarely be two eyewitnesses willing to initiate the execution - and so capital punishment would not be carried out.
Though the death penalty for adultery was carried out rarely, it still had value. It communicated loudly and clearly an ideal that Israel was to live up to, and it made people regard their sin much more seriously. Today, we have done away with this ideal, and people don't care much about adultery - and society suffers greatly as a result.
Bible.org has a different slant.
The phrase "a married woman" is literally "the wife of another man," which is a double use of the term b'l (BDB 127, KB 142, Qal passive participle and nominative masculine singular noun form). This term, normally translated "lord" or "husband," has the same root as Ba'al, the male Canaanite fertility god. The husband was "lord" over his home. His wife and children were, in a legal sense, property. In actuality sexual violations were seen as a sin against God (cf. Gen. 39:9; II Sam. 12:13). It violates the God-given order and stability of society and affects the God-given inheritance of families and clans.
"both of them shall die" The later rabbis interpreted this to mean the child, too, if the woman was pregnant, because of the idea of corporate sin. Notice the equality of the punishment, which is unusual in the OT.
The legislation of Israel was meant to be fair, not just legalistic. There were innocent parties to sinful acts!
