Dealing With Sexual Misbehaviour (Deuteronomy 22:22-30).
Various aspect of sexual misbehaviour are dealt with in this passage with the most heinous at the beginning and the end.
Analysis using the words of Moses.
a If a man be found lying with a woman who is married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So shall you put away the evil from Israel (Deuteronomy 22:22).
b If there be a young woman who is a woman of marriageable age (or virgin) betrothed to a husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you (ye) shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman, because she did not cry out, being in the city, and the man, because he has humbled his neighbour's wife. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you (Deuteronomy 22:23-24).
c But if the man find the young woman who is betrothed in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her; then the man only that lay with her shall die (Deuteronomy 22:25).
c But to the young woman you shall do nothing. There is in the young woman no sin worthy of death. For as when a man rises against his neighbour, and murders him, even so is this matter, for he found her in the field, the betrothed young woman cried out, and there was none to save her (Deuteronomy 22:26-27).
b If a man find a young woman who is a of marriageable age, who is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days (Deuteronomy 22:28-29).
a A man shall not take his father's wife, and shall not uncover his father's skirt (Deuteronomy 22:30).
Note that in ‘a' a man is found lying with a married woman, and in the parallel a man takes his father's wife, both liable to the death sentence. In ‘b' the case of a damsel betrothed who lies with a man is dealt with and the remedy stated and in the parallel the case of a damsel not betrothed who lies with a man is dealt with and the remedy stated. In ‘c' the case of a damsel betrothed who is forced to lie with a man is dealt with, and the man is to be put to death, and in the parallel she is declared innocent and is not to be put to death.