If a damsel, a virgin, be betrothed to some one, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her,
Deuteronomy 22 collects rules for everyday life, and here it turns to a woman already engaged who is caught with another man inside a town. Two questions follow: why did an engagement count as much as marriage, and why did the place — city or open country — decide the case?
This ruling sits inside a long list of rules, and one writer explains what all of them are for:
In Deuteronomy 22 we have a group of different rules about righteousness, care, love and tenderness — the smallest matters as well as the greatest... Yet anyone can see the great aim here. God would shape the heart of His people, in this relationship and by this standard, according to His own affections. He would give them thoughts that are not merely righteous but holy, and mixed with tenderness when tenderness is called for.
The verse calls the woman a betrothed virgin, not a wife. But in Israel an engagement was no private promise. It was a legal bond:
Among the Jews betrothal was looked on as being as binding as marriage, and only divorce could end it... It also pictures Jehovah's favour to His ancient people in a future day, when He will 'betroth' them to Himself for ever. Hosea 2:19-20.
The setting decides the case. In a town, neighbours were close enough to hear, so silence counted as consent:
A young woman might be engaged to be married, yet consent to have sexual intercourse with another man. If the man enticed her while they were in a city, she could cry out for help (vs.22-23). If she did not, she shared in the guilt of adultery, and both were to be put to death.
The next case moves the same event to open country, and the verdict reverses:
In the city a woman's cries for help could be heard. In the country a man may have forced a betrothed woman against her will, despite her cries for help (v.25). This was rape. The man must die, and the woman was held innocent (vs.26-27).
The nearby case of a married woman carries the same sentence. The same writer applies it to today:
When a man committed adultery with a married woman, both the guilty man and the woman were to be put to death (v.22). This is justice... But too many people take advantage of God's patient grace and think they can get away with much evil.
Joseph faced this law when Mary, his promised wife, was expecting a child. One writer explains what stopped him:
I think that the public exposure spoken of in Matthew 1:19 was what must have followed if Joseph had acted on Deut. 22. Appearances would have led him there, if God had not stopped this just man by sending Gabriel, and had not enabled him, through the angel's blessed message, to judge righteous judgment.
The same bond gives the picture Scripture uses for the church:
The church is at present only engaged to Christ, not married (2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7). But as to the bond itself, Scripture treats the two cases as the same (Deut. 22:23-24).
The comparison carries a warning:
The church was engaged to Christ as a pure virgin (2 Cor. 11:2). She should have kept strictly separate from the world that cast out and crucified her Lord. Instead she has been deceived and corrupted.
- Bond. Betrothal was as binding as marriage, and only a divorce could end it. So unfaithfulness here counts as adultery, not a broken plan.
- Place. In a town her cries could be heard, so silence counted as consent. In open country, where no one could hear, the woman is held innocent.
- Heart. God gave rules this detailed to shape His people's hearts after His own affections: holy thoughts, mixed with tenderness.
- History. Joseph faced this law over Mary. God's message through Gabriel kept him from acting on it and exposing her.
- Bride. The same bond holds the church, engaged to Christ and not yet married. The call is faithfulness while she waits, not corruption by the world.
then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, [being] in the city, and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife; and thou shalt put evil away from thy midst.
The case rests on one phrase: the man violated "his neighbor's wife," though she was only engaged. In Israel's courts the pledge had already made her a wife:
In the eyes of Jewish law, the status of betrothal was the same as that of marriage: Deuteronomy 22:23 and following.
The same tie shapes how Scripture speaks of God's own love for His people:
Among the Jews this was seen as being as binding as marriage, and only divorce could dissolve it... The word is also used as a picture of the Lord's favour to His ancient people in a future day, when He will "betroth" them to Himself for ever.
The verse turns on the words "in the city" and "she did not cry for help." A city meant neighbours within earshot:
A young woman might be engaged to be married, yet consent to have sexual intercourse with another man. If the man enticed her, and she was in a city, she could cry out for help. If she did not, then she was implicated in the guilt of adultery, and both were to be put to death.
The next case turns the verdict around. Where no one could hear her cry, the guilt was the man's alone:
In the city a woman's cries for help could be heard. In the country, by contrast, a man may have forced a betrothed woman against her will, despite her cries for help. This was rape, for which the man must die and the woman be held innocent.
The law sentences both alike. Yet one writer notes that Israel's record never shows this sentence carried out, and points to a scene where only the woman stood accused:
If he committed adultery with a married woman, or with one betrothed, both were to be put to death (Deuteronomy 22:22-24)... But we do not read that any man or woman was stoned for adultery... It may be that the men themselves did not have clear consciences, like those who brought the adulterous woman to the Lord in John 8:3.
This severe ruling sits inside a chapter full of small kindnesses. The mixture is deliberate:
Deuteronomy 22 appears to contain rules that guard the people from any lack of kindness and mercy. They also guard them from whatever would offend the feelings of nature, whether tenderness or purity... We find the same about women. They were protected from the dishonour done to them by a brutish, thoughtless husband, while impurity was punished with death.
Another writer reads the chapter the same way — its aim is to shape the inner life, not merely to regulate behaviour:
The great object here is that God would form the heart of His people in this relationship and by this measure, according to His own affections. God would give them not merely upright but holy thoughts, and not only this, but thoughts mingled with tenderness when tenderness was called for.
The verse ends with a command to purge the evil. The reason lies in who was living among them:
Look through the various laws and ordinances of the Old Testament, and you cannot miss the intense spirit of holiness they breathe... God's presence among them was always to be the spring of holiness and separation for His people. So we read, "So you shall purge the evil from your midst"... God's dwelling place must be holy.
The sentence belonged to the law. What changes under grace is not God's view of the sin:
This was solemn judgment, but again, this was under law, and the same judgment cannot be carried out under grace, though the crime is disgusting to God. But grace seeks to restore rather than to condemn.
The bond itself carries forward. Scripture uses this same betrothal to picture where the Church now stands:
The relation of man and wife is the nearest and most intimate of all. It pleased God to use it to set out His own relationship with His covenant people. The Church at present is only engaged to Christ, not married (2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:7). But as to the bond that exists, Scripture treats it as the same in both cases (Deuteronomy 22:23-24).
- Bond — An engagement bound like a marriage. Only divorce could break it, so unfaithfulness before the wedding counted as adultery.
- Guilt — "In the city" is the hinge. Help was within earshot, so silence counted as consent. In open country, where no one heard her cry, she went free.
- Sentence — Both parties died under this law. Yet Scripture never records it happening, and the accusers in John 8 brought only the woman.
- Purge — Evil had to go because God lived among His people. His dwelling place must be holy.
- Betrothed — The same bond now pictures the Church, engaged to Christ but not yet married. Grace seeks to restore rather than condemn, and the bond still holds.