申命记 22:17

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

捏造可恥的事毀謗她，說：“我發現你的女兒沒有貞潔的憑據。”其實這就是我女兒的憑據。’於是，他們就把衣服鋪在那城的長老面前。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
信 口 说 他 ， 说 ： 我 见 你 的 女 儿 没 有 贞 洁 的 凭 据 ； 其 实 这 就 是 我 女 儿 贞 洁 的 凭 据 。 父 母 就 把 那 布 铺 在 本 城 的 长 老 面 前 。

Contextual Overview

¹³ If a man marries a girl and has sexual relations with her but then decides he does not like her, ¹⁴ he might talk badly about her and give her a bad name. He might say, "I married this woman, but when I had sexual relations with her, I did not find that she was a virgin." ¹⁵ Then the girl's parents must bring proof that she was a virgin to the elders at the city gate. ¹⁶ The girl's father will say to the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, but now he does not want her. ¹⁷ This man has told lies about my daughter. He has said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin,' but here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin." Then her parents are to show the sheet to the elders of the city, ¹⁸ and the elders must take the man and punish him. ¹⁹ They must make him pay about two and one-half pounds of silver to the girl's father, because the man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. The girl will continue to be the man's wife, and he may not divorce her as long as he lives. ²⁰ But if the things the husband said about his wife are true, and there is no proof that she was a virgin, ²¹ the girl must be brought to the door of her father's house. Then the men of the town must put her to death by throwing stones at her. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by having sexual relations before she was married. You must get rid of the evil among you. ²² If a man is found having sexual relations with another man's wife, both the woman and the man who had sexual relations with her must die. Get rid of this evil from Israel.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: Genesis 43:18 - seek occasion against us

Cross-References

Genesis 12:2
I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.

Genesis 13:16
I will make your descendants as many as the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust on the earth, he could count your people.

Genesis 15:5
Then God led Abram outside and said, "Look at the sky. There are so many stars you cannot count them. Your descendants also will be too many to count."

Genesis 17:6
I will give you many descendants. New nations will be born from you, and kings will come from you.

Genesis 22:1
After these things God tested Abraham's faith. God said to him, "Abraham!" And he answered, "Here I am."

Genesis 22:2
Then God said, "Take your only son, Isaac, the son you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Kill him there and offer him as a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

Genesis 22:8
Abraham answered, "God will give us the lamb for the sacrifice, my son." So Abraham and his son went on together

Genesis 22:9
and came to the place God had told him about. Abraham built an altar there. He laid the wood on it and then tied up his son Isaac and laid him on the wood on the altar.

Genesis 22:10
Then Abraham took his knife and was about to kill his son.

Genesis 22:13
Then Abraham looked up and saw a male sheep caught in a bush by its horns. So Abraham went and took the sheep and killed it. He offered it as a whole burnt offering to God, and his son was saved.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And, lo, he hath given occasion of speech against her,.... In the neighbourhood where they dwell; has been the cause of persons speaking reproachfully of her, as one of ill fame:

saying, l found not thy daughter a maid; so that it seems he said this not only to his neighbours, and before a court of judicature, but to the parents of the damsel:

and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity; which were brought with him, and produced in open court:

and they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city; that they might have ocular proof and evidence of the truth of what he said, by having spread before them the sheet stained with the blood of her virginity upon her husband's first congress with her. It seems that the mother, as well as the father, were present and concerned in this action: for it is said, "they shall spread"; and though the mother might not speak, she was the proper person to bring this cloth and spread it; and indeed it was particularly in her care and keeping; for we are told t, that two persons, called שושבינים, "the friends" of the bride and bridegroom, went first into their bedchamber, and thoroughly examined the bed, whether there was anything relating to the sign of virginity, by which one might impose upon another; and they stood all night keeping watch with great joy and cheerfulness, as if they had been the guards of a king and queen; (to which is thought the allusion is in John 3:29) their business was, when the bridegroom and bride came out, to rush in immediately, and examine all things again; and knowing and owning the former linen sheets in which they had lain, took them and delivered them to the mother. Nor need spreading such a cloth before the court be thought unlikely because of the indecency of it, when it is observed that persons and things much more filthy came under the cognizance and examination of the priests, as leprous, menstruous, and profluvious persons, and their respective disorders; nor is it at all improbable that there should be such evident tokens as are said to be given, when it is observed, especially of the Jewish women, at what a tender age they were marriageable, and were frequently married, namely, when twelve years and one day old. And the Africans, as we are told u, have a custom with them similar to this at a wedding;

"a feast is prepared, and a certain woman waits without, until the bride is lain with; and then a linen cloth, stained with blood, is reached out to her, which she carries in her hands, and shows to the guests, crying out with a loud voice that this was a virgin hitherto not corrupt; then she, with other women, are splendidly received, first by the parents of the bridegroom, and then of the bride; but if she does not appear to be a virgin, she is returned to her parents under the disgrace of all, and the marriage made null and void.''

Indeed there are some Jewish writers, that interpret this cloth in a parabolical and allegorical sense, and understand by it witnesses that; would make the case as clear and plain as the spreading out a cloth or garment. They suppose that before the damsel was lain with she was examined by several matrons, who declaring her to be a virgin, gave it under their hands in writing to her parents, which they were capable of producing in court when there was occasion for it; so Jarchi says, this is a parable; the meaning is, they made things as clear and as plain as a new cloth; with which agrees the Talmud w he seems to have taken it from, where on these words, and they shall spread the cloth, this remark is made; but the literal sense seems best.

t Nachman. apud Fagium in loc. Schindler. Lex: Pentaglott. col. 260, 261. u Joan. Leon. Descript. Africae, l. 3. p. 325. w T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 46. 1.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Deuteronomy 22:17. They shall spread the cloth, c. — A usage of this kind argues a roughness of manners which would ill comport with the refinement of European ideas on so delicate a subject. Attempts have been made to show that the law here is to be understood metaphorically but they so perfectly fail to establish any thing like probability, that it would be wasting my own and my reader's time to detail them. A custom similar to that above is observed among the Mohammedans to the present day.