Deuteronomy 22:24-27 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

She cried not And therefore is justly presumed to have consented to it. As when a man riseth against his neighbour, even so is this matter Not an act of choice, but of force and constraint. The damsel cried Which is in that case to be presumed; charity obliging us to believe the best, till the contrary be manifest.

Deuteronomy 22:24-27

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 cried 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 forcec her, and lie 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, even so is this matter:

27 For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.