Text -- Deuteronomy 22:27-30 (NET)

22:27 for the man met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her. 22:28 Suppose a man comes across a virgin who is not engaged and overpowers and rapes her and they are discovered. 22:29 The man who has raped her must pay her father fifty shekels of silver and she must become his wife because he has violated her; he may never divorce her as long as he lives. 22:30 A man may not marry his father’s former wife and in this way dishonor his father.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Deu 22:27

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who attacked the woman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Deu 22:28

¹ tn Heb “lies with.”

NET Notes: Deu 22:30

¹ sn Beginning with 22:30, the verse numbers through 23:25 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 22:30 ET = 23:1 HT, 23:1 ET = 23:2 HT, 23:2 ET = 23:3 HT, etc., through 23:25 ET = 23:26 HT. With 24:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

² tn Heb “take.” In context this refers to marriage, as in the older English expression “take a wife.”

³ sn This presupposes either the death of the father or their divorce since it would be impossible for one to marry his stepmother while his father was still married to her.

⁴ tn Heb “uncover his father’s skirt” (so ASV, NASB). This appears to be a circumlocution for describing the dishonor that would come to a father by having his own son share his wife’s sexuality (cf. NAB, NIV “dishonor his father’s bed”).