“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
This law deals with adultery, and it hands one sentence to two people. It also gives a purpose that reaches past the pair: Israel must put the evil away.
One sin, two guilty
The verse refuses to treat the man as a bystander. Both names appear in the sentence. One commentator calls that plain justice, then measures it against the way people live now:
Leslie M. GrantIn the case of a man committing adultery with a woman married to a husband, both the guilty man and the woman were to be put to death (v.22). This is justice. If such a sentence were carried out today, how many people would die! But too many people, taking advantage of God's patient grace, think they can get away with much evil.
The chapter it belongs to
The death sentence does not sit alone. Around it stand laws of a much gentler kind:
William KellyDeuteronomy 22 encourages kind and even sensitive feeling. It forbids mixing principles together, punishes impurity, and protects the weak and innocent from cruelty.
The same chapter that softens the heart also hardens the penalty.
Why marriage is guarded so closely
One writer puts the husband-and-wife bond under every other human tie, and then higher still. God chose it to picture His own bond with His people:
Numerical Bible NotesThe suspected sin struck at the very foundation of that family relationship, which not only in Israel but outside it too is the foundation of every other relationship between one person and another… The relation of husband and wife is the one that God was pleased to use — as the closest and most intimate of all — to picture His own relation with His covenant people. The Church at present is only engaged to Christ, not yet married; but as to the bond that exists, Scripture treats it as the same in both cases (Deuteronomy 22:23-24).
Purging evil because God was living there
The verse ends by clearing Israel, not just punishing two people. The reason lies in who was walking among them — and that reached even into the most private corners of life:
C. H. MackintoshBut there was one great fact that every member of the assembly of Israel was always to keep in view: God Himself was present among them. This fact was to govern their most private habits and shape all their ways. "The Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you; therefore your camp must be holy, that He may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you" (Deuteronomy 23:14).
A law on the books, rarely on the ground
The Old Testament never records the sentence actually falling. One reference work draws a hard conclusion from that silence — and it lands on the men:
Morrish Bible DictionaryIf a man committed adultery with a married woman, or with a woman engaged to be married, both were to be put to death (Deuteronomy 22:22-24)… But we do not read that any man or woman was ever stoned for adultery. We know from the New Testament that Moses allowed a certain looseness, because their hearts were hard. A man could divorce his wife for any reason, and that was easier than bringing a suspected wife to trial. It may be that the men themselves did not have good consciences.
One writer holds this verse against the way people judged such cases:
L. M. GrantThe law had also said that not only the woman, but the man too was to be put to death for such sin (Deuteronomy 22:22). Where was the man? In such cases men thought the woman's guilt was greater than the man's, and the Pharisees were happy to forget him!
Where this leaves us
God does not ask today's governments to copy Israel's penalties. The sin has not shrunk:
L. M. GrantGod does not ask the governments of other nations to enforce Israel's laws, but these evils are no less wicked wherever they appear. Meanwhile, God is holding back punishment, and today He commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). If they do, they will be saved from the punishment they deserve.
Summary
- Bond — marriage holds up every other human relationship. God chose it to picture His own tie to His people.
- Breach — adultery breaks that bond. The sentence falls on the man as well as the woman.
- Purge — the aim reaches past the guilty pair to the whole nation. God walked in the middle of the camp, so the camp had to be holy.
- Silence — Scripture never records this sentence falling on anyone. Divorce became the easier path, and men with uneasy consciences took it.
- Delay — God asks no government today to enforce Israel's penalties, yet the sin is no less evil. He is holding back punishment and calling everyone to repent.