Bible Commentaries

Verses 1-30

Laws of love and purity (22:1-30)

A collection of miscellaneous laws reminds the people of some everyday responsibilities. They had to go out of their way to help others (22:1-4); they were not to dress in a way that would encourage immorality (5); they were to be thoughtful for the safety of others, birds and animals as well as people (6-8); and they were not to restrict the productivity of their crops through wrong practices, or shorten the lives of their working animals through cruelty (9-11). They were to wear tassels on their clothes to remind them to keep God’s commandments (12; see Numbers 15:37-41).

If a man tried to find an excuse for divorcing his wife by accusing her (falsely) of unchastity before marriage, he was to be whipped and fined for his cruel accusation and prevented from divorcing her (13-19). If, however, a woman had been guilty of unchastity before marriage, she had to suffer the penalty, which was death by stoning (20-21). The engaged as well as the married were considered adulterers if they had sexual relations with third parties, and had to be stoned to death. The one exception was the case of a woman who had been raped (22-27). People not engaged who had sexual relations were to marry each other, but the man was to be fined for his folly and had to pay the bride price to the young lady’s father (28-30; see Exodus 22:16-17).