And the elders of that city shall take the man, and chastise him. Not with words, but blows. Jarchi interprets it of beating, and so does the Talmud F24 T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 46. 1. ; and both the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render it,"shall beat him;' that is, with the beating or scourging of forty stripes, save one. read more
And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver ,.... Which was about twelve pounds of our money; this was double the dowry he would have been obliged to have given her, if he had put her away; which he might have done with less trouble, and with a greater certainty of being rid of her; but being willing to save that expense, took this wicked method to accuse her falsely; and therefore is fined double that sum: and give them unto the father of the damsel ; as a sort of... read more
But if this thing be true ,.... Which the husband of the damsel laid to her charge, that she was no virgin when married to him, and she had committed whoredom, of which there was plain proof: and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel ; by her parents, or those who had the care of her; or no sufficient reason could be assigned for the want of them, through any family defect, or any disorder of her own; which, as Maimonides F26 Hilchot Ishot, c. 11. sect. 12. says, the... read more
Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house ,.... For his greater disgrace, and as a sort of punishment for his neglect of her education, not taking care to instruct her, and bring her up in a better manner: and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, that she die ; which was the death this sort of adulteresses were put to; others was by strangling, and the daughter of a priest was to be burnt; see Leviticus 20:10 , which shows that this sin was... read more
Verse 18 18.And the elders of that city shall take that man. Calumny in this case received a threefold punishment; first, that he, who had invented the false accusation, should be beaten with stripes; secondly, that he should pay an hundred pieces of silver to the father of the girl; thirdly, that he should never be allowed to put her away; and tie reason is given, “because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel.” God here shows Himself to be the protector of virgins, that... read more
Verse 20 20.But if this thing be true. If the punishment should seem to anybody to be somewhat too severe, let him reflect that no kind of fraud is more intolerable. A false sale of a field or a house shall be accounted a crime, as also the utterance of false money; and, therefore, she who abuses the sacred name of marriage for deception, and offers an unchaste body instead of a chaste one, much less deserves to be pardoned. The cause of severity, however, which is expressly mentioned, is much... read more
Divine care for sexual honor. In these, as in so many of the precepts of this book, we find civil precepts invested with religious sanctions. Nothing is more important for the honorable maintenance of social life, than that both men and women should honor each other's sex as well as their own. Those that do otherwise are an abomination to the Lord their God. There are five or six different cases supposed in the verses referred to at the heading of this Homily: Such sins would have been... read more
Slander, unchastity, and fraud. No blame can lie against the Scriptures because they legislate on such detestable matters. The blame must lie at the door of depraved humanity, which perpetrates such deeds and makes Divine legislation necessary. The obscenity appertains to the vices, only praise belongs to the remedy. I. A WOMAN 'S CHASTITY IS HER MAIN DOWRY FOR LIFE . If she possess not this virtue, she is worse than worthless; she is a plague and a pest—a moral... read more
The laws in this section have the design of fostering purity and fidelity in the relation of the sexes, and also of protecting the female against the malice of sated lust and the violence of brutal lust. read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 22:13-30
These laws relate to the seventh commandment, laying a restraint by laying a penalty upon those fleshly lusts which war against the soul. I. If a man, lusting after another woman, to get rid of his wife slander her and falsely accuse her, as not having the virginity she pretended to when he married her, upon the disproof of his slander he must be punished, Deut. 22:13-19. What the meaning of that evidence is by which the husband's accusation was to be proved false the learned are not agreed,... read more