Old Testament Commentary - Deuteronomy 22

by Don R. Hender


Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
             CHAPTER 22            

Moses sets forth laws pertaining to: lost property, wearing of proper clothes, caring for interests of others, marrying virgins, and penalties for sexual immorality.

  1 THOU shalt not see thy abrother's ox or his sheep go bastray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.
  2 And if thy brother abe not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again.
  3 In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment; and with all alost thing of thy brother's, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself.
  4 ¶ Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely ahelp him to lift them up again.
  5 ¶ The woman shall not awear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garmenta: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
 5a neither shall a man put on a women's garment There is both clothing that is 'common' between a man and a woman, and that which is particular to each sex. This seems to be both designed to maintain a distinction and separation between the sexes as well as insure that a man does not contrive to take upon himself being a women or a women take upon herself to being a man. The differences between the sexes is essential to the kingdom of God and God's eternal plan. Procreation with the participation of a man and a women, each maintaining their identities and roles in the parenting process is critical to the order of God and to obtaining the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom where marriage between a man and a women and the family unit is absolutely required. All that frustrates men being men and women being women, including the 'cross dressing' in those articles which are meant only to be worn by men and women appart from each other, is a direct afront and attack upon the proper division of the sexes into their proper distinctions, male and female.
  6 ¶ If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the adam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the bdam with the young:
  7 But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest aprolong thy days.
  8 ¶ When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a abattlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.
  9 ¶ Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with adivers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.
  10 ¶ Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.
  11 ¶ Thou shalt not wear a garment of adivers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.
  12 ¶ Thou shalt make thee afringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.
  13 ¶ If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and ahate her,
  14 And agive occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a bmaid:
  15 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:
  16 And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her;
  17 And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
  18 And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;
  19 And they shall aamerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil bname upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.
  20 But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
  21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she adie: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.
  22 ¶ If a man be found lying with a woman amarried to an husband, then they shall both of them diea, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.
 22a they shall both of them dieIt is a serious matter which in covenant Israel would result in the death of both the adultrous man and women. In today's world were the life of the temporal mortal being is so protected by the law to make it almost impossible to put even murders to death and remove them from society, it seems quite harsh that the Lord would set forth a law which would end the life of both individuals caught in adultry. Yet of the shedding of innocent blood there is no forgiveness unto the Kingdom of God. But as is with all of God's commands there is a hierarchy of critical matters. King David commits both adultry and murder, yet he by the mouth of God's prophet Nathan is spared mortal death. Yet David does suffer great sorrow for his sins the rest of his life, making his remaining days in mortality a matter of mental suffering of great extremes. The greater matter in David's situation was that he was foreordained to one in the chain of ancestors to the Messiah. And at the point of David's transgressions, he had not yet fathered the next in that line of ancestry, Solomon. To have put David to death at that point would have totally frustrated the design of God and the Salvation of man. So David was spared, yet he died a thousand deaths in the suffering he subsequently experienced. To appreciate this suffering anguish, one needs only to review the many psalms of David which plead to God for forgiveness while obtaining none for those grevious sins unto exaltation.
  23 ¶ If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto aan husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;
  24 Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she acried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.
  25 ¶ But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and alie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:
  26 But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, aeven so is this matter:
  27 For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.
  28 ¶ If a man find a damsel that is a avirgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
  29 Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his awife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.
  30 ¶ A man shall not take his afather's wife, nor bdiscover his father's skirt.