Deuteronomy 22:25
But if a man find a damsel that is betrothed, in the field, and taking hold of her, lie with her, he alone shall die:
Open Deuteronomy 22:25 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sin autem in agro repererit vir puellam, quæ desponsata est, et apprehendens concubuerit cum ea, ipse morietur solus :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Ἐὰν δὲ ἐν πεδίῳ εὕρῃ ἄνθρωπος τὴν παῖδα τὴν μεμνηστευμένην καὶ βιασάμενος κοιμηθῇ μετ᾽ αὐτῆς, ἀποκτενεῖτε τὸν κοιμώμενον μετ᾽ αὐτῆς μόνον,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְֽאִם בַּשָּׂדֶ֞ה יִמְצָ֣א הָאִ֗ישׁ אֶת הנער הַמְאֹ֣רָשָׂ֔ה וְהֶחֱזִֽיק בָּ֥הּ הָאִ֖ישׁ וְשָׁכַ֣ב עִמָּ֑הּ וּמֵ֗ת הָאִ֛ישׁ אֲשֶׁר שָׁכַ֥ב עִמָּ֖הּ לְבַדּֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Hold. Septuagint, "offering violence," as also [in] ver. 28. (Haydock)
Die. Moses supposes that the woman in the field had made all possible resistance, and that the one in the city had, by silence at least, consented. But if the case were otherwise, the judges were to make all necessary enquiries, and pass sentence accordingly. (Calmet)
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
Origen Origen's Commentary on Matthew, Chapter VII
But we may also learn from this, that in respect of the reasonings only which we reason within ourselves, we are sometimes convicted and reproached as being of little faith. And I think that just as a man commits adultery in his heart only, though not proceeding altogether to the overt act, so he commits in his heart the rest of the things which are forbidden. As then he who has committed adultery in his heart will be punished proportionately to adultery of this kind, so also he who has done in his heart any one of the things forbidden, for example, who has stolen in his heart only, or borne false witness in his heart only, will not be punished as he who has stolen in fact, or who has completed the very act of false testimony, but only as he who has done such things in his heart. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Amandus
4. I have not been able quite to determine what it is that she means by the words “has found herself compelled” to marry again. What is this compulsion of which she speaks? Was she overborne by a crowd and ravished against her will? If so, why has she not, thus victimized, subsequently put away her ravisher? Let her read the books of Moses and she will find that if violence is offered to a betrothed virgin in a city and she does not cry out, she is punished as an adulteress: but if she is forced in the field, she is innocent of sin and her ravisher alone is amenable to the laws. …
St Jerome The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary
4. Let us take the points one by one, and follow the tracks of this impiety that we may show that he has contradicted himself. He admits that she was betrothed, and in the next breath will have her to be a man’s wife whom he has admitted to be his betrothed. Again, he calls her wife, and then says the only reason why she was betrothed was that she might one day be married. And, for fear we might not think that enough, “the word used,” he says, “is betrothed and not intrusted, that is to say, not yet a wife, not yet united by the bond of wedlock.” But when he continues, “the Evangelist would never have applied the words, before they came together to persons who were not to come together, any more than one says, before he dined, when the man is not going to dine,” I know not whether to grieve or laugh. …