Charles Ellicott Commentary Deuteronomy 22:13-22

"If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, and lay shameful things to her charge, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came nigh to her, I found not in her the tokens of virginity; then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel`s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate; and the damsel`s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; and, lo, he hath laid shameful things [to her charge], saying, I found not in thy daughter the tokens of virginity; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter`s virginity. And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. And the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him; and they shall fine him a hundred [shekels] of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. But if this thing be true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the damsel; then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father`s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the harlot in her father`s house: so shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee. If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away the evil from Israel." — Deuteronomy 22:13-22 (ASV)

Deuteronomy 22:13–30. LAWS OF CONJUGAL FIDELITY.

Virginity. —The law in these verses will be best appreciated by considering its effects. The maidens in Israel would be compelled to guard their purity and innocence, as they valued their lives. Jealousy and caprice on the part of husbands, in view of this law, would be avoided as likely to incur discredit and serious penalties. A fine of 100 shekels , or 50 , was no light matter for a nation that found a quarter shekel sufficient for a present to a great man (1 Samuel 9:8), and half a shekel too much for a poll-tax on the men of military age (1 Chronicles 21:3, Exodus 30:15, and Nehemiah 10:32).

The law of the jealousy offering in Numbers 5:12-31 must also be taken into consideration, as guarding the fidelity of the wife. It would be most unadvisable for either man or woman to act in a way that would bring them under the penalties described here. The tendency of these laws would be to make all men watchful and careful for the honour of their families.

She hath wrought folly in Israel. —This expression should be noticed. It appears for the first time in Genesis 34:7, very shortly after the bestowal of the name Israel (Genesis 32:0). It would almost appear that the name entailed a higher standard of behaviour upon Jacob’s family, after the hand of the Holy One had been laid upon their father. A separate code of rules was binding upon the chosen people from the very beginning of their history. Hardly any point is made of more importance, from the birth of Isaac downwards, than the purity of the chosen seed.

Adultery. —See Leviticus 20:10. Moses in the Law commanded us that such should be stoned. It was not disputed by our Saviour (John 8:5).