Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 22:9--23:18
Context22:9 You must not plant your vineyard with two kinds of seed; otherwise the entire yield, both of the seed you plant and the produce of the vineyard, will be defiled. 1 22:10 You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. 22:11 You must not wear clothing made with wool and linen meshed together. 2 22:12 You shall make yourselves tassels 3 for the four corners of the clothing you wear.
22:13 Suppose a man marries a woman, has sexual relations with her, 4 and then rejects 5 her, 22:14 accusing her of impropriety 6 and defaming her reputation 7 by saying, “I married this woman but when I had sexual relations 8 with her I discovered she was not a virgin!” 22:15 Then the father and mother of the young woman must produce the evidence of virginity 9 for the elders of the city at the gate. 22:16 The young woman’s father must say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man and he has rejected 10 her. 22:17 Moreover, he has raised accusations of impropriety by saying, ‘I discovered your daughter was not a virgin,’ but this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!” The cloth must then be spread out 11 before the city’s elders. 22:18 The elders of that city must then seize the man and punish 12 him. 22:19 They will fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, for the man who made the accusation 13 ruined the reputation 14 of an Israelite virgin. She will then become his wife and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.
22:20 But if the accusation is true and the young woman was not a virgin, 22:21 the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing 15 in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father’s house. In this way you will purge 16 evil from among you.
22:22 If a man is caught having sexual relations with 17 a married woman 18 both the man who had relations with the woman and the woman herself must die; in this way you will purge 19 evil from Israel.
22:23 If a virgin is engaged to a man and another man meets 20 her in the city and has sexual relations with 21 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 22 his neighbor’s fiancée; 23 in this way you will purge 24 evil from among you. 22:25 But if the man came across 25 the engaged woman in the field and overpowered her and raped 26 her, then only the rapist 27 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 28 and murders him, 22:27 for the man 29 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 30 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 (23:1) 31 A man may not marry 32 his father’s former 33 wife and in this way dishonor his father. 34
23:1 A man with crushed 35 or severed genitals 36 may not enter the assembly of the Lord. 37 23:2 A person of illegitimate birth 38 may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so. 39
23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite 40 may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever 41 do so, 42 23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired 43 Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you. 23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed 44 the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves 45 you. 23:6 You must not seek peace and prosperity for them through all the ages to come. 23:7 You must not hate an Edomite, for he is your relative; 46 you must not hate an Egyptian, for you lived as a foreigner 47 in his land. 23:8 Children of the third generation born to them 48 may enter the assembly of the Lord.
23:9 When you go out as an army against your enemies, guard yourselves against anything impure. 49 23:10 If there is someone among you who is impure because of some nocturnal emission, 50 he must leave the camp; he may not reenter it immediately. 23:11 When evening arrives he must wash himself with water and then at sunset he may reenter the camp.
23:12 You are to have a place outside the camp to serve as a latrine. 51 23:13 You must have a spade among your other equipment and when you relieve yourself 52 outside you must dig a hole with the spade 53 and then turn and cover your excrement. 54 23:14 For the Lord your God walks about in the middle of your camp to deliver you and defeat 55 your enemies for you. Therefore your camp should be holy, so that he does not see anything indecent 56 among you and turn away from you.
23:15 You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he has run away to you. 57 23:16 Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages 58 he prefers; you must not oppress him.
23:17 There must never be a sacred prostitute 59 among the young women 60 of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute 61 among the young men 62 of Israel. 23:18 You must never bring the pay of a female prostitute 63 or the wage of a male prostitute 64 into the temple of the Lord your God in fulfillment of any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.
[22:9] 1 tn Heb “set apart.” The verb קָדַשׁ (qadash) in the Qal verbal stem (as here) has the idea of being holy or being treated with special care. Some take the meaning as “be off-limits, forfeited,” i.e., the total produce of the vineyard, both crops and grapes, have to be forfeited to the sanctuary (cf. Exod 29:37; 30:29; Lev 6:18, 27; Num 16:37-38; Hag 2:12).
[22:11] 2 tn The Hebrew term שַׁעַטְנֵז (sha’atnez) occurs only here and in Lev 19:19. HALOT 1610-11 s.v. takes it to be a contraction of words (שַׁשׁ [shash, “headdress”] + עַטְנַז [’atnaz, “strong”]). BDB 1043 s.v. שַׁעַטְנֵז offers the translation “mixed stuff” (cf. NEB “woven with two kinds of yarn”; NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “woven together”). The general meaning is clear even if the etymology is not.
[22:12] 3 tn Heb “twisted threads” (גְּדִלִים, gÿdilim) appears to be synonymous with צִיצִת (tsitsit) which, in Num 15:38, occurs in a passage instructing Israel to remember the covenant. Perhaps that is the purpose of the tassels here as well. Cf. KJV, ASV “fringes”; NAB “twisted cords.”
[22:13] 4 tn Heb “goes to her,” a Hebrew euphemistic idiom for sexual relations.
[22:13] 5 tn Heb “hate.” See note on the word “other” in Deut 21:15. Cf. NAB “comes to dislike”; NASB “turns against”; TEV “decides he doesn’t want.”
[22:14] 6 tn Heb “deeds of things”; NRSV “makes up charges against her”; NIV “slanders her.”
[22:14] 7 tn Heb “brings against her a bad name”; NIV “gives her a bad name.”
[22:14] 8 tn Heb “drew near to her.” This is another Hebrew euphemism for having sexual relations.
[22:15] 9 sn In light of v. 17 this would evidently be blood-stained sheets indicative of the first instance of intercourse. See E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy (NAC), 302-3.
[22:16] 10 tn Heb “hated.” See note on the word “other” in Deut 21:15.
[22:17] 11 tn Heb “they will spread the garment.”
[22:18] 12 tn Heb “discipline.”
[22:19] 13 tn Heb “for he”; the referent (the man who made the accusation) has been specified in the translation to avoid confusion with the young woman’s father, the last-mentioned male.
[22:19] 14 tn Heb “brought forth a bad name.”
[22:21] 15 tn The Hebrew term נְבָלָה (nÿvalah) means more than just something stupid. It refers to a moral lapse so serious as to jeopardize the whole covenant community (cf. Gen 34:7; Judg 19:23; 20:6, 10; Jer 29:23). See C. Pan, NIDOTTE 3:11-13. Cf. NAB “she committed a crime against Israel.”
[22:21] 16 tn Heb “burn.” See note on Deut 21:21.
[22:22] 17 tn Heb “lying with” (so KJV, NASB), a Hebrew idiom for sexual relations.
[22:22] 18 tn Heb “a woman married to a husband.”
[22:22] 19 tn Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in Deut 21:21.
[22:23] 21 tn Heb “lies with.”
[22:24] 24 tn Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in Deut 21:21.
[22:25] 25 tn Heb “found,” also in vv. 27, 28.
[22:25] 26 tn Heb “lay with” here refers to a forced sexual relationship, as the accompanying verb “seized” (חָזַק, khazaq) makes clear.
[22:25] 27 tn Heb “the man who lay with her, only him.”
[22:26] 28 tn Heb “his neighbor.”
[22:27] 29 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man who attacked the woman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[22:28] 30 tn Heb “lies with.”
[22:30] 31 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.
[22:30] 32 tn Heb “take.” In context this refers to marriage, as in the older English expression “take a wife.”
[22:30] 33 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.
[22:30] 34 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”).
[23:1] 35 tn Heb “bruised by crushing,” which many English versions take to refer to crushed testicles (NAB, NRSV, NLT); TEV “who has been castrated.”
[23:1] 36 tn Heb “cut off with respect to the penis”; KJV, ASV “hath his privy member cut off”; English versions vary in their degree of euphemism here; cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, NLT “penis”; NASB “male organ”; NCV “sex organ”; CEV “private parts”; NIV “emasculated by crushing or cutting.”
[23:1] 37 sn The Hebrew term translated “assembly” (קָהָל, qahal) does not refer here to the nation as such but to the formal services of the tabernacle or temple. Since emasculated or other sexually abnormal persons were commonly associated with pagan temple personnel, the thrust here may be primarily polemical in intent. One should not read into this anything having to do with the mentally and physically handicapped as fit to participate in the life and ministry of the church.
[23:2] 38 tn Or “a person born of an illegitimate marriage.”
[23:2] 39 tn Heb “enter the assembly of the
[23:3] 40 sn An Ammonite or Moabite. These descendants of Lot by his two daughters (cf. Gen 19:30-38) were thereby the products of incest and therefore excluded from the worshiping community. However, these two nations also failed to show proper hospitality to Israel on their way to Canaan (v. 4).
[23:3] 41 tn The Hebrew term translated “ever” (עַד־עוֹלָם, ’ad-’olam) suggests that “tenth generation” (vv. 2, 3) also means “forever.” However, in the OT sense “forever” means not “for eternity” but for an indeterminate future time. See A. Tomasino, NIDOTTE 3:346.
[23:3] 42 tn Heb “enter the assembly of the
[23:4] 43 tn Heb “hired against you.”
[23:5] 44 tn Heb “the
[23:5] 45 tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”) here and commonly elsewhere in the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s elective grace toward Israel. See note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.
[23:8] 48 sn Concessions were made to the Edomites and Egyptians (as compared to the others listed in vv. 1-6) because the Edomites (i.e., Esauites) were full “brothers” of Israel and the Egyptians had provided security and sustenance for Israel for more than four centuries.
[23:9] 49 tn Heb “evil.” The context makes clear that this is a matter of ritual impurity, not moral impurity, so it is “evil” in the sense that it disbars one from certain religious activity.
[23:10] 50 tn Heb “nocturnal happening.” The Hebrew term קָרֶה (qareh) merely means “to happen” so the phrase here is euphemistic (a “night happening”) for some kind of bodily emission such as excrement or semen. Such otherwise normal physical functions rendered one ritually unclean whether accidental or not. See Lev 15:16-18; 22:4.
[23:12] 51 tn Heb “so that one may go outside there.” This expression is euphemistic.
[23:13] 52 tn Heb “sit.” This expression is euphemistic.
[23:13] 53 tn Heb “with it”; the referent (the spade mentioned at the beginning of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:13] 54 tn Heb “what comes from you,” a euphemism.
[23:14] 55 tn Heb “give [over] your enemies.”
[23:14] 56 tn Heb “nakedness of a thing”; NLT “any shameful thing.” The expression עֶרְוַת דָּבָר (’ervat davar) refers specifically to sexual organs and, by extension, to any function associated with them. There are some aspects of human life that are so personal and private that they ought not be publicly paraded. Cultically speaking, even God is offended by such impropriety (cf. Gen 9:22-23; Lev 18:6-12, 16-19; 20:11, 17-21). See B. Seevers, NIDOTTE 3:528-30.
[23:15] 57 tn The Hebrew text includes “from his master,” but this would be redundant in English style.
[23:17] 59 tn The Hebrew term translated “sacred prostitute” here (קְדֵשָׁה [qÿdeshah], from קַדֵשׁ [qadesh, “holy”]; cf. NIV “shrine prostitute”; NASB “cult prostitute”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “temple prostitute”) refers to the pagan fertility cults that employed female and male prostitutes in various rituals designed to evoke agricultural and even human fecundity (cf. Gen 38:21-22; 1 Kgs 14:24; 15:12; 22:47; 2 Kgs 23:7; Hos 4:14). The Hebrew term for a regular, noncultic (i.e., “secular”) female prostitute is זוֹנָה (zonah).
[23:17] 60 tn Heb “daughters.”
[23:17] 61 tn The male cultic prostitute was called קָדֵשׁ (qadesh; see note on the phrase “sacred prostitute” earlier in this verse). The colloquial Hebrew term for a “secular” male prostitute (i.e., a sodomite) is the disparaging epithet כֶּלֶב (kelev, “dog”) which occurs in the following verse (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).
[23:18] 63 tn Here the Hebrew term זוֹנָה (zonah) refers to a noncultic (i.e., “secular”) female prostitute; see note on the phrase “sacred prostitute” in v. 17.
[23:18] 64 tn Heb “of a dog.” This is the common Hebrew term for a noncultic (i.e., “secular”) male prostitute. See note on the phrase “sacred male prostitute” in v. 17.
