Deuteronomy 22:22-27

22:22 If a man is caught having sexual relations with a married woman both the man who had relations with the woman and the woman herself must die; in this way you will purge evil from Israel.

22:23 If a virgin is engaged to a man and another man meets her in the city and has sexual relations with her, 22:24 you must bring the two of them to the gate of that city and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry out though in the city and the man because he violated his neighbor’s fiancĂ©e; in this way you will purge evil from among you. 22:25 But if the man came across the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped 10  her, then only the rapist 11  must die. 22:26 You must not do anything to the young woman – she has done nothing deserving of death. This case is the same as when someone attacks another person 12  and murders him, 22:27 for the man 13  met her in the field and the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

Matthew 1:18-19

The Birth of Jesus Christ

1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, 14  she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 1:19 Because Joseph, her husband to be, 15  was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her 16  privately.


tn Heb “lying with” (so KJV, NASB), a Hebrew idiom for sexual relations.

tn Heb “a woman married to a husband.”

tn Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in Deut 21:21.

tn Heb “finds.”

tn Heb “lies with.”

tn Heb “humbled.”

tn Heb “wife.”

tn Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in Deut 21:21.

tn Heb “found,” also in vv. 27, 28.

10 tn Heb “lay with” here refers to a forced sexual relationship, as the accompanying verb “seized” (חָזַק, khazaq) makes clear.

11 tn Heb “the man who lay with her, only him.”

12 tn Heb “his neighbor.”

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

14 tn The connotation of the Greek is “before they came together in marital and domestic union” (so BDAG 970 s.v. συνέρχομαι 3).

15 tn Grk “husband.” See following note for discussion.

16 tn Or “send her away.”