Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 22:21
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 die: 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.
21. the door of her father’s house ] Not at the town’s gate (as in other cases, Deu 22:24, Deu 17:5), because it was her father’s house which she had dishonoured. Therefore instead of to play the harlot, etc., read with Sam. LXX. turning her father’s house into a harlot’s.
folly ] Rather, senselessness.
Heb. n e balah from nabal; ‘very difficult to render in English. “Fool” and “folly” are inadequate The fault of the nabal is not weakness of reason, but moral and religious insensibility, a rooted incapacity to discern moral and religious relations, leading to an intolerant repudiation in practice of the claims which they impose The cognate nabluth occurs Hos 2:10 (12) in the sense of immodesty. Senseless and senselessness may be suggested as fair English equivalents ’ (Driver).
folly in Israel ] this phrase, implying the sense of a national ideal and standard, a national conscience, which is found in J, Gen 34:7, Jos 7:15, and in Jdg 20:6; Jdg 20:10, does not elsewhere occur in D, and is evidence (so far) that we have here an earlier law interpreted by D.
so shalt thou put away ] See on Deu 13:6 (5); and introd. note to this law.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Quest. Why should she die when her crime was only fornication, which was not punished in a woman with death, Exo 22:16,17?
Answ. Because there was not only fornication in this case, as Exo 22, but this was accompanied with deep dissimulation and injury to her husband in the false profession of virginity, and it might be presumed that she committed this folly after she was betrothed to him, and therefore so obstinately denied it, as knowing the danger of it in that case; or God ordered it thus for the honour and custody of the matrimonial bed from all defilement, that she, who being defiled before she was married or betrothed, and therefore not punishable by death, yet if she should presume to carry her defilement into the married estate with a pretence of virginity, she should then be put to death.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house,…. For his greater disgrace, and as a sort of punishment for his neglect of her education, not taking care to instruct her, and bring her up in a better manner:
and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, that she die; which was the death this sort of adulteresses were put to; others was by strangling, and the daughter of a priest was to be burnt; see
Le 20:10, which shows that this sin was committed by her after her espousals, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra note; or otherwise it would have been only simple fornication, which was not punishable with death:
because she hath wrought folly in Israel: a sin, as all sin is folly, and especially any notorious one, as this was; and which is aggravated by its being done in Israel, among a people professing the true religion, and whom God had chosen and separated from all others to be a holy people to himself:
to play the whore in her father’s house; where she continued after her espousals, until she was taken to the house of her husband, to consummate the: marriage; and between the one and the other was this sin committed, and which is another reason for her execution at the door of her father’s house:
so shalt thou put evil away from among you; deter others from it by such an example, and remove the guilt of it from them, which otherwise would lie upon them, if punishment was not inflicted; the Targum of Jonathan interprets it of the putting away of her that did the evil.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ver. 21. Then they shall bring out the damsel, &c. As a disgrace to her parents, who had not taken better care to preserve her chastity, she was to be punished at their door, having committed the crime in their house.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
door = entrance.
put evil away. See note on Deu 13:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
stone her: Deu 22:22, Deu 22:24, Deu 13:10, Deu 17:5, Deu 21:21, Lev 24:16, Lev 24:23, Num 15:35, Num 15:36
she hath wrought: Gen 34:7, Lev 21:9, Jdg 20:6, Jdg 20:10, 2Sa 13:12, 2Sa 13:13
shalt thou: Deu 13:5, Deu 17:7, Deu 19:19
Reciprocal: Gen 38:24 – let her Lev 24:14 – let all the Deu 23:17 – There shall be Jos 7:25 – all Israel Jdg 19:2 – played Jdg 20:13 – put away 1Ki 21:13 – they carried him Jer 3:1 – but thou hast Eze 16:41 – and execute Eze 23:45 – after the manner of adulteresses Mat 1:19 – a public Joh 8:5 – Moses 1Co 5:13 – Therefore