The Violation of Chastity Commandment

The Violation of Chastity Commandment (Dt. 22:21)
(Execution for a Defiled Woman Attempting to Marry)

Many people have heard of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-17 KJV). However, the endowment commandment of Ex. 22:16 (Ex. 22: 15 in the Hebrew text) and the “dowry of virgins” (Ex. 22:17) is not so well known. The father of a virgin daughter under the specific circumstances that she had not been contracted to any other man previously was to be made a contract for marriage so to speak with a purchase price by a man who went to bed with her (or seduced her).

No Cheap Sex Among the People of God: Endowment Law (Payment to the father)

This endowment law of Ex. 22:16 manifests that biblical marriage must include payment and consideration for the possession (daughter) of the father by the potential husband. A man that had sex with his male neighbor's daughter was not freely given a choice to accept her or not; it was up to the father to determine the position of the man whether he was to become a son-in-law or not. Ex. 22: 17 states that even if the father refuses to give away his daughter to the man, the dowry (payment) must be made regardless even as the dowry of a virgin. So, even if the man who took his male neighbor's daughter to bed was not accepted by the father as a son-in-law, the man that had sex with her still had an endowment to pay for the damage of the loss of virginity of his daughter and her future as a spouse (since she no longer had virginity to offer a man, she could not faithfully marry unless the father accepted the man who penetrated her).

Violation of Chastity Commandment (Rule among the People of God)

The endowment law helps us understand the violation of chastity commandment of Dt. 22:21. The father is expected to have a trust relationship (faith in her obedience) with his daughter. He expects her to remain a virgin and if she doesn't, she is to notify him so that he may collect his endowment and choose whether to give her away in marriage or to keep her single.

However, if the girl lost her virginity some way and did not notify the father, then dared to marry some other man, and the second man found her not be a virgin, she was liable to the death penalty for punishment for her unfaithfulness and folly.

Dt. 22:21 “Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.”

The community (“the men of her city”) of Israel was commanded to execute her (death penalty) for acting like a whore (unchaste and attempting to marry). The community was to use capital punishment as we say in America to get rid of the wickedness of women who are not chaste and attempt to marry a man: “so shalt thou put evil away from among you.”

Concluding, let no unchaste woman attempt to marry. Let no pastors commit the folly of passing off an unchaste woman to a man. God forbid!

My post: “It depends on how severe the mistake was! If a girl was seduced (penetrated) previously, her dating days are actually over as long as her first man (who penetrated her) is still alive. She would have no biblical right to offer herself as an unchaste date (potential mate) to another man. It would be an attempt of folly to even date someone, leading the guy on that she is chaste (Dt.22:21). God expects the virtue of chastity to be kept among the people of God. See my sermon 'Illusion'.”

Second post: “It is actually the father's decision (or guardian), not the girl's decision to decide whom she will marry (have sex). The endowment law (Ex. 22:16) helps us understand the violation of chastity commandment of Dt. 22:21. The father is expected to have a trust relationship (faith in her obedience) with his daughter. He expects her to remain a virgin and if she doesn't, she is to notify him so that he may collect his endowment and choose whether to give her away in marriage or to keep her single.”