What Does Deuteronomy 22:15 Mean?

Then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence cloths of the young woman's maidenhood to the elders of the city in the gate.

Deuteronomy 22:15 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate:

THE KEY

The verb “bring out” makes the passage’s movement visible: a young woman’s sexual status is carried from the household into public judgment.

THE MEANING

The verse makes the young woman’s sexual status a public claim to be supported by evidence: her parents bring its tokens to the elders at the city gate. The claim about her body is placed before communal authority, where the elders judge it.

THE ROOT

וְהוֹצִיאוּ

vehotsi'u

GROWS FROM

יצא

y-ts-ʾ

To go out or come forth; in the causative form here, to bring out or cause to go forth.

“bring out” in this verse is vehotsi'u. The verb keeps attention on movement from what is held within to what is brought into view. Its causative form also makes clear who acts: others bring the tokens before the elders.

ALSO GROWS

yatsa: To go out, come forth.

יָצָא

This is the root’s basic movement, the seed beneath the act of bringing something out.

hotzi: To bring out, lead forth.

הוֹצִיא

This causative form makes someone the agent of that movement, as the parents bring the tokens to the gate.

THE PATTERN

A private claim becomes consequential when its evidence is put before public authority.

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.

Deuteronomy 19:15 · SDVThe matter is established through a defined threshold of testimony, showing evidence governing public judgment.

And two men, sons of Belial, came in and settled before him, and the men of Belial bore witness against him, even against Naboth, before the people, saying, Naboth blessed God and the king. Then they brought him out of the city, and stoned him with stones, and he died.

1 Kings 21:13 · SDVThe accusation is witnessed before the people and leads to Naboth’s death, showing how public testimony can become a means of violence.

To whom I answered, It is not the habit of the Romans to hand any man over as a favor to death, before the accused has the accusers face to face, and has a place to answer for himself concerning the charge laid against him.

Acts 25:16 · SDVThe accused faces the accusers and receives a chance to answer before judgment, placing a procedural limit on public accusation.

THE THREAD

Then they shall bring out the young woman to the doorway of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones until she dies, because she has done a withering thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father's house. So you shall burn out the evil from your midst.

Deuteronomy 22:21 · SDV

The same Hebrew verb ⁨וְהוֹצִיאוּ⁩ (vehotsi’u, “bring out”) appears in both verses. Here it names the tokens brought before the elders; in the next verse it names the young woman brought out to be stoned, shifting the focus from evidence to the person subjected to the judgment.

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