1 Of humanity toward brethren. 5 The sex is to be distinguished by apparel. 6 The dam is not to be taken with her young ones. 8 The house must have battlement. 9 Confusion is to be avoided. 12 Fringes upon the vesture. 13 The punishment of him that slandereth his wife. 20, 22 Of adultery, 25 of rape, 28 and of fornication. 30 Incest.
Deu 22:1 If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner.
Responsibility for the welfare of a friend or neighbor was strictly enjoined, and extended even to one’s enemies (Ex. 23:4).
Straying.
If the cattle in this instance had merely been going astray, to bring them back would have been nothing more than a matter of time and effort. But the text suggests also that in some instances they were being driven off by thieves.
In such cases there was an element of personal risk, possibly involving in some instances the loss of life.
Do not ignore it.
Deu 22:2 If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back.
It was not enough to inform the owner, but effort was to be put forth to restore his property. Compare the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30 35).
Take it home. This might involve the care of wounded animals, and certainly their shelter and feeding, until the one holding the cattle would be able to locate the rightful owner.
Deu 22:3 Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it.
The same law as in v. 1, 2 was applicable to anything a man might find. The basic principle of love for one’s neighbor included an interest in whatever affected him.
Compare the teaching of Jesus on this point (Matt. 5:42–48).
Deu 22:4 If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.
Do not ignore it. That is, slip away before he should be observed in the vicinity of the animals in distress (see Luke 10:31, 32).
Help the owner. Compare Ex. 23:4, 5.
Deu 22:5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this.
Not wear. This probably refers to the heathen custom—quite common in some lands today—of a simulated change of sex for immoral purposes, men wearing women’s clothes, aping their manners, and offering their bodies for immoral purposes.
God made man male and female, and the distinction thus ordained is to be honored and obeyed. The desire to minimize this distinction grows from low ideals and contributes to immorality.
Deu 22:6 If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.
God is considerate of the feeling and lives of His lesser creatures (Matt. 10:29; Luke 12:6), and is pleased and honored when we are also (see on Lev. 22:27). Taking the lives of any of God’s creatures in sport, or annoying them, or disturbing them unnecessarily, is unworthy of a Christian and is displeasing to God.
Deu 22:7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.
Let the mother go. This would protect the species, ensuring the preservation of bird life. Modern game laws generally reflect the principle here set forth.
Deu 22:8 When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.
A parapet. The flat roof of a house was to have a low parapet to protect an unwary person from falling to the street below. The roof was often used as a place for the drying of various grains and fruits, for children, and for relaxation in the cool of the evening (see Joshua 2:6; 2 Sam. 11:2; 18:24; Neh. 8:16; Matt. 10:27; Acts 10:9).
Deu 22:9 Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.
Two kinds of seeds. A similar injunction had been given with respect to their fields (Lev. 19:19). This law was probably given to ensure the preservation of seed quality. Inferior varieties could easily result from crossbreeding, and against these God sought to protect His people.
Scientific, selective crossbreeding was unknown.
Deu 22:10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
The ox was a “clean” animal, and the ass “unclean.” However, this charge was probably a humane one, inasmuch as in size and strength the animals are unequal.
Deu 22:11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
Wool and linen. See on Lev. 19:19; see also Eze. 44:17, 19; Rev. 19:8.
Deu 22:12 Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.
The Hebrew word thus translated is used but once more in the OT (1 Kings 7:17, “wreaths”). It is from the verb “to become great,” “to twist,” and is not the same word as that rendered “fringes” in Num. 15:37–41.
The four corners. OThe dress of God’s people was to be distinctive. They were not to follow the fashions of the people among whom they lived.
Deu 22:13 If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her
Apparently, he had married the woman, not with any real love for her, but primarily from his physical attraction to her. Physical attraction is a most precarious basis upon which to establish a home. Unity of spirit is the only sure and abiding bond between husband and wife.
Deu 22:14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,”
It is only a mean and selfish man who will falsely accuse his wife and ruin her reputation simply to secure the “legal” right to cast her off.
Such a man should be publicly chastised (v. 18).
Deu 22:15 then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin.
From ancient times the evidence of a young woman’s virginity was treasured as proof of her unsullied youth. Immediately upon the consummation of the marriage this physical evidence (see on v. 17) was shown to the immediate relatives, who could then be called upon as material witnesses of her virginity.
At the gate. See on Gen. 19:1. 16. The damsel’s father. The mother apparently did not take an active part in the public defence, but her presence there is proof of her close interest in the case.
Deu 22:16 Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her.
Deu 22:17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town,
The cloth. The word translated “cloth” is the common one for “wrapper” or “mantle,” a large square cloth, usually of linen, worn as an outer garment by both men and women (used in 5; cf. Gen. 35:2; Ex. 22:26; 2 Sam. 12:20; Ruth 3:3), and used as a covering in sleep (Ex. 22:27).
Deu 22:18 and the elders shall take the man and punish him.
That is, formal inquiry having been made with the presentation of the evidence, deliberation by the elders brought a decision.
Punish. The condemned received 40 stripes by men appointed to administer the punishment (ch. 25:3). Josephus (Antiquities iv. 8. 23) says the man received 39 stripes.
Deu 22:19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
Fine him. The fine imposed was double that which the groom usually contracted to give the bride.
Must not divorce her. Such an arrangement could hardly make for happy married life in the modern sense. The husband wanted to be rid of his wife but was forced to retain her against his will.
But the procedure did justify the wife and re-establish her character in the eyes of the public. 21.The door. She had disgraced her father’s house, therefore was to be punished at his door.
Stone her. Compare ch. 21:21.
Outrageous thing.
Folly in Israel. The word translated “folly” is difficult to express in English. It is also rendered “vile” (Judges 19:24), and “villany” (Isa. 32:6; Jer. 29:23). It in ideas of disgrace, wantonness, utter senselessness. 22. Both of them die. The manner of death is not stated. Jewish tradition is that all such were strangled, but they may have been stoned, as in v. 24 (see Eze. 16:38, 40; 23:45, 47). See also the NT incident (John 8:5, 7), of a woman presumably betrothed.
Deu 22:23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her,
Deu 22:24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
This case is treated as if it were literally adultery, since the girl was pledged to her “husband” and regarded as a married woman. Compare the case of Joseph and Mary, whose marriage ceremony had not yet taken place, but only their betrothal, yet she was spoken of as his “wife” (Matt. 1:20, 24).
The Western “engagement” falls short of the solemnity and binding character of the Eastern betrothal (see 2 Sam. 3:14). It was presumed that the girl was forced to submit; she was given the benefit of the doubt. There were no people near to whom she could appeal for help (v. 27), and her innocency was assumed if investigation proved nothing to the contrary (see 2 Sam. 13:11).
Deu 22:26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor,
Deu 22:27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
Found her. Perhaps tending the flock, or gathering herbs, or drawing water. She was presumably upon legitimate business, and overpowered.
Deu 22:28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,
Not pledged. In this case the girl was not regarded as a wife, for there had been no betrothal ceremony, with its exchange of solemn promises and the payment of a sum of money.
They are discovered. Witnesses may have come upon them; or they may have confessed, to force the issue—owing to the opposition of their parents to their marriage.
Deu 22:29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
Deu 22:30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.
His father’s wife. The passage reads, literally, “and not shall he remove the fold of the garment of his father.” This refers to the Oriental custom in which a newly married man spreads a fold of his long, skirtlike outer robe over his wife, to signify that she is his property, and that he alone has power over her person (Ruth 3:9–14; 4:10; Eze 16:8).