If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days. (Deuteronomy 22:28-29)
Interpretation:
It seems that according to biblical
law, a man may
rape a
virgin and that as
punishment for violating her he must:
- Pay 50 shekels of silver to her father (implying that women are property to be bought and traded... and that a virgin is only worth 50 shekels which is approximately 0.6kg).
- Never divorce her.
Upon further reading of
Deuteronomy 22, it is full of laws devoted to various things including
sexual morality. Not surprisingly, it seems as if the rights of the woman are never even considered in this passage. If the man obeys the law and indeed pays for and marries her, she will never be able to divorce him. Luckily, this man doesn't seem like the type to obey the law since he's a rapist in the first place. However, even if he refuses, there is no suggestion as to what the man's punishment might be. Although if you judge by the rest of the book, it may be inferred that stoning may be an acceptable punishment. Even if that is the case, the rapist can easily escape
death by marrying his victim.
It has been suggested that the term "lay hold on her" and "lie with her" do not necessarily mean
rape. However, if you read the entire chapter, you see other laws that refer to sexual morality and use even less violent language to suggest forced sex. Indeed, the term "lay hold" is often used in the bible to suggest force. Additionally, upon researching other translations of this verse we find that the term "Rape" is the most commonly used, followed by "lay hold and lie with" and "seize and lie with", all of which suggest force. On top of that, even if this verse didn't specifically mention rape, it works just as well for rape as it does for consensual sex and would protect lovers and predators alike.
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