Deuteronomy 22:20-30: a reflection

20But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady, 21then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you. 22If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel. 23If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her, 24then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you. 25But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die; 26but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter; 27for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was no one to save her. 28If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her and lies with her, and they are found, 29then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady’s father fifty shekels of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. 30A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.

This is a hard passage, part of an ancient legal code with penalties that are difficult and painful to read, and honesty requires saying so rather than rushing past. But in the middle of it, one distinction stands out as worth holding onto. The law addresses the case of a woman who is assaulted, forced against her will, and it is emphatic: to the woman you shall do nothing; there is in her no sin worthy of death. And it explains why, comparing her situation to that of a murder victim: she cried out, and there was no one to save her.

Notice what the law refuses to do. It refuses to blame the victim. The one who was forced, who had no power to prevent it, bears no guilt; the wrong belongs entirely to the one who assaulted her. In an ancient world, and sometimes in ours, that is not a small thing. The law will not let the violated person be treated as if the crime were somehow theirs. She is innocent, likened to someone attacked and overpowered, a victim, not an offender.

That distinction matters deeply, especially for anyone who has been harmed and then made to feel, by others or by their own heart, that it was somehow their fault. This hard old law, difficult as much of it is, contains a clear word: the one who was forced bears no guilt. If you carry shame for something that was done to you against your will, hear it: in the eyes of this law, and far more in the heart of God, the violated are innocent, and the wrong belongs to the one who did it. God sees the one who cried out with no one to save, and he does not blame her.

Lord, this is a hard passage, and much of it is difficult. But thank you that even here your law refuses to blame the one who was forced and overpowered, declaring the violated innocent. For anyone carrying shame for what was done to them against their will, let them hear that the wrong was not theirs. You see the one who cried out with no one to save, and you do not blame her. Bring healing to the harmed.