Bible Commentaries
Deuteronomy 22

Verse 1

Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.

Thou shalt not see thy brothers. — No not thine enemies; Exodus 23:4 for, have we not all one father? Malachi 2:10 See Trapp on " Matthew 5:44 "

Verse 5

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so [are] abomination unto the LORD thy God.

The woman shall not wear. — Because it is against both natural and civil honesty.

Neither shall a man put on — That is, say stage players and those that plead for them, a man shall not wear women’s apparel ordinarily and daily, so as women used to do. But the word is, Put on, and so they do: the same word is used of David’s putting on Saul’s armour, which yet he put off again presently. So full, saith one hereupon, are our hearts of distinctions and shifts, odia restringere, ampliare favores, to restrain hatreds, as they call them - that is, the commandments that make against them.

Verse 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 prolong [thy] days.

And that thou mayest prolong, … — They were commanded to spare the dam, because she represented the parents in bringing up of her young ones; and if their days should be for that prolonged, much more for this. The Hebrews reckon this commandment for the least of all in Moses’s law; and yet such a promise is annexed thereunto.

Verse 9

Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.

And the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled. — Heb., Be sanctified, per antiphrasin, as, auri sacra fames; and Anthony’s fire is ignis sacer. So a whore is called in Hebrew, Kedesha, of kadash, i.e., holiness, Deuteronomy 23:17 by a contrary meaning, as most unholy and unchaste.

Verse 10

Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.

Thou shalt not plough. — These laws were made to set forth how God abhorreth all mixtures in religion, and how carefully men should keep their minds from being "corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:3

Verse 12

Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest [thyself].

Wherewith thou coverest thyself. — Ne in motu aliquid indecorum appareat; Lust and malice are sharp sighted. 2 Samuel 11:2 ; 2 Samuel 6:20

Verse 14

And give 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 maid:

I found her not a maid. — Silvester Petra-sancta Iesuita calumniatur puellas plerunque corruptas nuptui dari in Reformato Evangelio: Quod de Evangelio Romano (ait Rivettus noster) potius dici posset; postquam puellae dementarunt a vobis seductae, et sub vestibus cordulis nodosis spurcis vestris manibus fuerunt ligatae. Jesuita Vapulans, p. 146. Papists falsely affirm that few maids amongst us come clear to marriage: cuius contrarium verum est.

Verse 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:

Then shall the father of the damsel. — Whose house hereby was dishonested, and by whom his daughter’s honour was to be defended, especially since children’s miscarriages reflect upon the parents, and the daughters sin is the father’s shame.

Verse 16

And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her;

And he hateth her. — Which is a monster in nature. Ephesians 5:28-29

Verse 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.

These are the tokens. — Which in those countries seldom or never failed.

Verse 19

And they shall amerce him in an hundred [shekels] of silver, and give [them] unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.

He hath brought up an evil name. — Which is a kind of murder. Ezekiel 22:9 God shall clear the innocency of his slandered servants. Psalms 37:6 Isaiah 54:17 As the eclipsed moon, by keeping her motion, wades out of the shadow and recovers her splendour, so shall it be with such.

Verse 20

But if this thing be true, [and the tokens of] virginity be not found for the damsel:

And the tokens. — Nor any natural impediment can be proved, as the Hebrews explain it.

Verse 22

If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, [both] the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.

With a woman married. — Adultery was punished with death; because society and the purity of posterity could not otherwise continue amongst men.

Verse 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.

Humbled his neighbour’s wife. — So called, because betrothed, Quia nuptias facit consensus, non concubitus, as the lawyers determine it.

Verse 25

But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:

And the man force her, and lie with her. — It was a speech of Charles V, emperor, If that impure fellow, Farnesius, who being the Pope’s general, had forced many fair ladies, were here present, I would kill him with mine own hand. Nec vocem iracundiorem unquam ex Carolo auditam ferunt. Parei, Hist. Prof. Medulla. Never was he heard to speak so angrily. The Lacedemonian commonwealth was utterly ruined by a rape committed on the two daughters of Scedasus at Leuctra.

Verse 29

Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty [shekels] of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.

She shall be his wife. — Howbeit he must be humbled before the Lord, for entering into his ordinance through the devil’s portal.