Deuteronomy 22:14
And seek occasions to put her away, laying to her charge a very ill name, and say: I took this woman to wife, and going in to her, I found her not a virgin:
Open Deuteronomy 22:14 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- quæsieritque occasiones quibus dimittat eam, objiciens ei nomen pessimum, et dixerit : Uxorem hanc accepi, et ingressus ad eam non inveni virginem :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐπιθῇ αὐτῇ προφασιστικοὺς λόγους, καὶ κατενέγκῃ αὐτῆς ὄνομα πονηρὸν καὶ λέγῃ Τὴν γυναῖκα ταύτην εἴληφα, καὶ προσελθὼν αὐτῇ οὐχ εὕρηκα αὐτῆς τὰ παρθένια·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְשָׂ֥ם לָהּ֙ עֲלִילֹ֣ת דְּבָרִ֔ים וְהוֹצִ֥יא עָלֶ֖יהָ שֵׁ֣ם רָ֑ע וְאָמַ֗ר אֶת הָאִשָּׁ֤ה הַזֹּאת֙ לָקַ֔חְתִּי וָאֶקְרַ֣ב אֵלֶ֔יהָ וְלֹא מָצָ֥אתִי לָ֖הּ בְּתוּלִֽים
Haydock's commentary
Name. Hebrew, "and occasion reports against her to bring an evil name upon her," (Haydock) that he may not have to return her dowry. For, according to many of the Rabbins, he might give her a bill of divorce, simply if he did not like her. (Selden, Uxor. iii. 1, &c.)
They allow the proof here specified, only with respect to a Hebrew woman between twelve and twelve and a half years old, during the period of her being espoused, but not taken home by her husband. The cause was to be tried before the 23 judges. Oftentimes only witnesses, probably matrons, were examined in defence of the woman. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] iv. 8.) St. Ambrose (ep. 8. 64. ad Syagr.) highly disapproves of such unsatisfactory methods. The marks assigned by the law were commonly observed in Syria, Persia, &c. The Arab physicians speak of them. See Valesius, c. xxv. The age in which women were then married, the climate, &c., caused these indications to be more clear, and deposed for or against the fidelity of the bride. The mother had them entrusted to her care by the friends of the husband, who had kept watch at the door on the wedding night. (M.[Menochius;?] Nachman, ap. Fagium.)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian On the Veiling of Virgins, Chapter XI
But it is not so; but from the time when she begins to be self-conscious, and to awake to the sense of her own nature, and to emerge from the virgin ’s (sense), and to experience that novel (sensation) which belongs to the succeeding age. For withal the founders of the race, Adam and Eve, so long as they were without intelligence, went “naked;” but after they tasted of “the tree of recognition,” they were first sensible of nothing more than of their cause for shame. Thus they each marked their intelligence of their own sex by a covering. But even if it is “on account of the angels” that she is to be veiled, doubtless the age from which the law of the veil will come into operation will be that from which “the daughters of men” were able to invite concupiscence of their persons, and to experience marriage. …