Deuteronomy 22:13-19 Laws governing sex
If a man marries a woman, sleeps with her, and then turns on her, calling her loose, giving her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I slept with her, I discovered she wasn’t a virgin,” then the father and mother of the girl are to take her with the proof of her virginity to the town leaders at the gate. The father is to tell the leaders, “I gave my daughter to this man as wife and he turned on her, rejecting her. And now he has slanderously accused her, claiming that she wasn’t a virgin. But look at this, here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” And then he is to spread out her bloodstained wedding garment before the leaders for their examination. The town leaders then are to take the husband, whip him, fine him a hundred pieces of silver, and give it to the father of the girl. The man gave a virgin girl of Israel a bad name. He has to keep her as his wife and can never divorce her.
20-21 But if it turns out that the accusation is true and there is no evidence of the girl’s virginity, the men of the town are to take her to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death. She acted disgracefully in Israel. She lived like a whore while still in her parents’ home. Purge the evil from among you.
What must it have been like to be a woman in Bible times? If your husband tired of you, he could accuse you of premarital sex in hopes that you would be disgraced and even stoned by the men of the town! The only protection a girl had was the “proofs of her virginity,” that is, the blood on the wedding garments from the wedding night when her husband would perforate her hymen with his penis. The problem is that sometimes the hymen is very rudimentary. And what if a wicked man makes away with the blood-stained wedding garment? Premarital sex for females is completely forbidden, while lying about a virtuous girl also carries severe penalties-whipping and a heavy fine. But at the end, the man must keep the girl as his wife. What will happen to a girl whose husband has bent every effort to discredit her and have her stoned? What will be her fate and the fate of her children?
22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both must die. Purge that evil from Israel. Adultery is expressly forbidden. Remember that later when the Pharisees catch a woman in adultery and drag her to Jesus, somehow the man isn’t even mentioned. Hmmm. Is he another Pharisee?
23-24 If a man comes upon a virgin in town, a girl who is engaged to another man, and sleeps with her, take both of them to the town gate and stone them until they die—the girl because she didn’t yell out for help in the town and the man because he raped her, violating the fiancée of his neighbor. You must purge the evil from among you.
25-27 But if it was out in the country that the man found the engaged girl and grabbed and raped her, only the man is to die, the man who raped her. Don’t do anything to the girl; she did nothing wrong. This is similar to the case of a man who comes across his neighbor out in the country and murders him; when the engaged girl yelled out for help, there was no one around to hear or help her.
I have always found these laws to be cruel. What if the man gags the girl so that she cannot cry out? The poor girl might be killed while innocent.
28-29 When a man comes upon a virgin who has never been engaged and grabs and rapes her and they are found out, the man who raped her has to give her father fifty pieces of silver. He has to marry her because he took advantage of her. And he can never divorce her.
30 A man may not marry his father’s ex-wife—that would violate his father’s rights.
Again, what kind of a future does a virgin who has been raped have when her rapist is forced to marry her? Such practices have not been limited to Bible times. I am aware of a situation in one small town where a virtuous girl was forced to marry her rapist, perhaps because he was a pastor’s son. Although that lady was as good and sweet and kind as she could be, her husband remained a bitter man and a possible sexual predator.
God forbids a man to marry his stepmother. This would be a form of incest, a sin that God hates.
We might find some of these laws shocking; however, by standards of the time, they were lenient. Traditionally, women caught in any compromising situation might be killed immediately without trials, investigations, or any kind of protection. At the same time, such laws would also ensure that virgins would be accompanied by male relatives whenever they went out in public, also for their protection.
Today, abduction and sexual trafficking have become major threats. Kidnappers are now targeting stores such as Walmart and Target and grocery stores even in small cities. Such horrific crimes should not be tolerated in any society. Let us pray that God will bring revival throughout America and throughout the world so that such actions will become matters of history rather than current events.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, please send revival throughout the world. Protect the vulnerable, particularly women and children. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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