Moses considered seven types of cases in these verses.
The first case (vv. 13-19) is of a man who marries a woman and then falsely charges her with being a harlot (not being a virgin when he married her). If the girl could prove her virginity, her husband would have to pay a large fine (cf. 2 Sam. 24:24) to her father and remain married to the girl.250The evidence of the girl's virginity was the blood on her dress or bedclothes on the wedding night. Some Bedouin and Moslem parents still retrieve and keep these to prove virginity if necessary.251
The second case (vv. 20-21) involved a similar case, but in this instance the girl was not a virgin. She would suffer stoning for being a harlot, a capital offense in Israel. These verses reveal that sex before marriage was sinful and serious in God's sight (cf. 1 Cor. 7:1-2). Premarital sex presumes to seize the highest privilege in marriage (i.e., intimacy through sexual union that results in the "one flesh"relationship). It does so without shouldering the responsibility, namely, permanent commitment to one another (expressed as "cleaving"in Gen. 2:24). It therefore perverts marriage, the basic institution of society. It presumes to dictate to God by altering His plan. Not everyone who has engaged in premarital sex has thought this through, but this is the basic reason premarital sex is wrong. To the engaged couple committed to one another and tempted to have sex before their marriage I would say postpone sex until the marriage has taken place. Scripture regards sex as the consummation of marriage, what takes place after the couple has completed everything else involved in the establishment of marriage (cf. Gen. 2:24).252
The third case (v. 22) decreed that a man who committed adultery with a married woman would die with the woman.
The fourth case (vv. 23-24) dealt with a man who had intercourse with an engaged girl in a city. Both individuals would die by stoning. Israelites regarded engaged girls as virtually married and even called them wives (v. 24). Thus they treated the man as having committed adultery, as in case three. The girl died because she did not cry out for help. She consented to the act. Apparently Moses was assuming that if she had cried out someone in the city would have rescued her.
The fifth case (vv. 25-27) involved a situation similar to case four, but the intercourse took place in an isolated field. In this instance only the man died assuming the girl cried for help but no one heard her. Presumably if it was clear that she did not cry out she would have died too.
The sixth case (vv. 28-29) had to do with a man and a virgin who had intercourse before they became engaged. In this case they had to marry and could not divorce. The man had to pay a penalty to his father-in-law too (cf. Exod. 22:16-17).
The seventh case (v. 30) Moses stated in terms of a general principle. God forbade incest in Israel. "Uncovering the skirt"is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. To uncover means to encroach on another person's marital rights. To cover in this sense represents committing to marry (cf. Ruth 3:9).
"One of the most important and difficult tasks in the interpretation of the Scriptures in general and of the passages that deal with women and marriage in particular, is the need to discern which elements are cultural, temporary, and variable, and which ones are transcultural, timeless, and universal."253
God designed these laws to stress the importance of monogamy in a polygamous culture.
Marital ". . . purity and fidelity are essential to the well-being of society."254
God's people need to keep sex in its proper place in relation to marriage (cf. Heb. 13:4). The focus of this entire chapter is how to apply love.
