How do we interpret the passages on SA in Deuteronomy?

As a minister, bible college student, survivor, mother, daughter, sister, and the owner and leader at LiveMindfuLee this has been some of the most passionate, heartfelt, and relevant research I have dove into. I will do my best to shed light in a direct and impactful way. If you find this topic triggering I suggest talking to your minister or faith centered therapist directly instead of self led reading. If you need helpful resources please check out the resources page of this website here Resources

Let us begin our journey here.

Deuteronomy 22:23-24

“If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.”

This passage can feel very targeted and damning when it is wielded the wrong way. I remember thinking as a young girl (child) that God no longer loved me after I was assaulted, because of the way this passage was received. Lets look at it with older, wiser, and better educated eyes and ears now.

“If there is a girl who is a virgin” Virginity must be understood in the full context of the Bible and not the context of the secular world. Virginity/purity by the modern standard simply means to abstain from sex. Virginity in the Bible was about a spiritual commitment to purity and dedication to God. This is how the church is described as a virgin bride to Christ meaning we worship no other God, we succumb to no other force, we stay pure in our faith. A young bride’s virginity was her promise to be pure and faithful to her husband but also fulfilling a spiritual covenant with God.

“and another man finds her in the city, and lies with her” Find is an important distinction here. The bible does not say “rape”, “assault”, “harm” “force” “seize” it says “find” from the word matsa‘ and this has significant import. We can deduce that he “found” her does not mean she was violently attacked, because this is the same term used when talking about adam and eve and “men leaving their families and finding their wife” We can assume this means a woman was arranged or engaged to be married and she instead fell to the temptation of another. Why? Because it also mentions a city, and that the woman did not cry out. A city is a populated area where soldiers would have been patrolling, and many people would have been around to come to her aid. This shows that a woman has the responsibility and desire to cry out when being defiled.

This topic can be so hard to digest. I had to dig deep and relate this to my own story. When I was younger and bad things would happen to me, I didn’t cry out. I cried to myself or I sucked it up and fawned and did whatever I had to in the moment to survive. I didn’t tell people what I was going through and so they couldn’t step in and help. I remember one of the older boys in my neighborhood became a police officer and came to me in the street begging me to tell him what was happening and I still didn’t. As I got older that didn’t change, instead it became more of a pattern with men in my life who knew they could hurt me. Until I found God, learned to pray, and started calling out to God for help. Help came. Sometimes it was swift and immediate. Sometimes it was in hindsight and through healing and justice. This passage had been used to oppress me when it could have been used to empower me instead. I aim to show you that you have the power to cry out. You have the power to call on God to preserve you.

When this passage calls to be rid of evil, the evil it talks about is adultery and godlessness because falling to temptation of lust is a sin, and in this case it bares a weight on the virgin (and the church) to remain pure in these moments both of temptation and of fear to cry out to God through faith instead of staying silent and succumbing to tribulation. Thankfully the Lord our God sent his son to die for us, so that we may be forgiven through our belief in him, that even if you didn’t cry out then, he has given us a path to follow and voice to cry out now. I encourage all you who are suffering because you were silenced to lift your voice and cry out to God now.

Deuteronomy 22:25-27

“But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.”

Here in this passage we see that the tone and message changes. Here the man forces her. This means he took her against her will. This is no longer considered adultery. She also exemplifies faith by honoring herself and God and crying out to preserve herself. In this passage even though the girl cried out, and there was no one to save her in the moment, she is still saved and absolved from a physical and spiritual death because she is found without sin.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29

“If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days.”

This is where things get confused often from the oppressive sounding and tricky language. We have to really understand what this is saying and how it applies to us today. The word seize is actually taphas which translates to “grasp with the hands” as well as, take hold of, or catch, or capture, or use skillfully with hands. To us in the modern world we hear seize and think of an arrest but in this sense we can refer to another time in bible it is used :

Genesis 39:12:.“And she caught (taphas) him by his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me!’ But he left his garment in her hand and fled”.
(In this case it is again being used to show grasping at with the hands to tempt into adultery)

So we must interpret this with context. Another note we can make is in this passage there is no location mentioned. This isn’t something that happened in the city or the field there was no one who could witness this occurring so likely the were intentionally in private together, and rather than be found by someone walking upon them it mentions discovered, as in gaining knowledge of. The final observation is that in this passage they are no longer referred to as separate beings but as “they” as they are both parties to the offense and joined together in what transpired. Yet he being the chief agitator by overwhelming her into her succumbing to him, this makes him responsible for her. Think of when you really like a guy but you want to wait until marriage but he is all over you, teasing you, tempting you, overwhelming you until you go against your morals and succumb to a moment of weakness. Was she violated? yes. Was it violent? We can assume through context it wasn’t. This is why he then becomes responsible for her, as to preserve her purity of spirit. We see similar laws about remarrying for widows, to preserve them. Culturally at this time they believed marriage and sex within marital context was a way to protect from succumbing to lust.

What we can take from this is that in these situations the bride (the woman, or the church) is responsible for crying out to God for help in moments of fear, oppression, weakness and temptation. If we cry out we will be delivered but if we stay silent then we are culpable for our transgressions. We can also take away from this in no instance when a woman was actually assaulted did God fault her.

The Bible is a perfectly put together guide for biblical living, but it can be wielded as a weapon. If read and understood it is a weapon against the enemy and oppressors of our faith. If read out of context and misinterpreted it can be used to oppress us. This is why we must put on the armor of God every day by reading the word and seeking out a deeper connection and understanding to the Lord.