Handout, September 24, 2003
RS-2B03: Women in the Biblical Tradition
A. Y. Reed
14Suppose a man marries a woman, but after going in
to her, he dislikes her 14and makes up charges
against her, slandering her by saying, "I married this woman; but when I
lay with her, I did not find evidence of her virginity." 15The
father of the young woman and her mother shall then submit the evidence of the
young woman's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. 16The
father of the young woman shall say to the elders: "I gave my daughter in
marriage to this man but he dislikes her; 17now
he has made up charges against her, saying, 'I did not find evidence of your
daughter's virginity.' But here is the evidence of my daughter's
virginity." Then they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the
town. 18The elders of that town shall
take the man and punish him; 19they shall fine
him one hundred shekels of silver (which they shall give to the young woman's
father) because he has slandered a virgin of Israel. She shall remain his wife; he shall not be permitted to divorce
her as long as he lives.
20 If, however, this charge is true, that evidence
of the young woman's virginity was not found, 21then
they shall bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father's house and
the men of her town shall stone her to death, because she committed a
disgraceful act in Israel by prostituting herself in her father's house. So
you shall purge the evil from your midst.
22 If a man is caught lying with the wife of another
man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman as well as the
woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
23 If there is a young woman, a virgin already
engaged to be married, and a man meets her in the town and lies with her, 24you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town
and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry for help in
the town and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. So you shall
purge the evil from your midst.
25 But if the man meets the engaged woman in the
open country, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who
lay with her shall die. 26You shall do nothing
to the young woman; the young woman has not committed an offense punishable by
death, because this case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a
neighbor. 27Since he found her in the open
country, the engaged woman may have cried for help, but there was no one to
rescue her.
28 If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and
seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act, 29the
man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman's
father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her he shall not
be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.
Deuteronomy 25:5-10
5When brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband's brother to her, 6and the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
7But if the man has no desire to marry his brother's widow, then his brother's widow shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me." 8Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him.
If he persists, saying, "I have no desire to marry her," 9then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and declare, "This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house." 10Throughout Israel his family shall be known as "the house of him whose sandal was pulled off."