John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 22:13

"If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her," — Deuteronomy 22:13 (ASV)

If any man take a wife. This passage also tends to the exaltation of chastity. God provides against both cases: to prevent a husband from unjustly bringing reproach to a chaste and innocent young woman, and to prevent a young woman, having been defiled, from escaping punishment if she pretended to be a virgin.

A third object should also be noted, namely, that parents were thereby admonished to be more careful in watching over their children.

It is, indeed, an act of gross brutality for a husband, knowingly and willingly, to seek a false pretext for divorcing his wife by bringing reproach and infamy to her. But, since it often happens that lustful individuals become disgusted with their vices and then try to rid themselves of them in every way, it was necessary to correct this evil.

A method was prescribed by which the integrity of the woman would be safe from the slanders of an ungodly and cruel husband. While it was also just to give relief to an honest man, so that he would not be compelled to cherish in his home a harlot by whom he had been deceived. For it is a very bitter thing for sincere minds silently to endure so great an ignominy.

An admirable precaution is here established; that is, if a woman were accused by her husband, her parents had the power to produce the tokens of chastity which should acquit her. But if they did not, the husband would not be obliged against his will to keep her in his house after she had been defiled by another.

It is clear from this passage that the tokens of virginity were taken on a cloth on the first night of marriage as future proofs of chastity. It is also probable that the cloth was stored before witnesses as a pledge, to be a sure defense for pure and modest young women. For it would have been giving parents too much leeway if they had been believed solely on their testimony; but Moses speaks briefly, as if about a well-known custom.