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Deuteronomy 22:20

in Deuteronomy 22

If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

But if this thing be true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the damsel;

KJV

But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:

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This verse in Deuteronomy 22

Commentary

4 notes on this verse
But if this thing be true,.... Which the husband of the damsel laid to her charge, that she was no virgin when married to him, and she had committed whoredom, of which there was plain proof: and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel; by her parents, or those who had the care of her; or no sufficient reason could be assigned for the want of them, through any family defect, or any disorder of her own; which, as Maimonides (z) says, the judges were to inquire into. (z) Hilchot Ishot, c. 11. sect. 12.

This site's exposition

Suppose a man marries a woman

on Deuteronomy 22:13-21

Her parents answer the husband's charge by bringing proof to the elders at the gate. The case is public, and the burden falls first on the accuser. If the charge fails he is fined a hundred shekels and may never divorce her.

This site's exposition

this accusation is true

The case now turns to an accusation found true. Gill reports from Maimonides that the judges first asked whether some illness or family condition could explain the missing proof of virginity. Only an accusation that survived that inquiry went further.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

If a man take a wife, &c.--The regulations that follow might be imperatively needful in the then situation of the Israelites; and yet, it is not necessary that we should curiously and impertinently inquire into them.

The words behind it

9 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְאִם־and if

    veim-H518 →1069 times

  • אֱמֶ֣תtruth

    ʾemetH571 →127 times

  • הָיָ֔הit was

    hayahH1961 →3559 times

  • הַדָּבָ֖רthe word

    hadavarH1697 →1440 times

  • הַזֶּ֑ה<the> this

    hazehH2088 →1180 times

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • נִמְצְא֥וּthey were found

    nimtzeuH4672 →455 times

  • בְתוּלִ֖יםvirginiti<es>

    vetulimH1331 →10 times

  • לַֽנַּעֲרָֽה׃for the young woman

    lanaarH5291 →63 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Deuteronomy: the study guide →Read Deuteronomy 22 →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Deuteronomy 22 →