What Does Deuteronomy 22:16 Mean?
And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, and he hates her."
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.
King James wording
King James Version
And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her;THE KEY
The father’s “I gave” names the bond, but the husband’s hatred shows that a marriage can be publicly named without being mutually loving.
THE MEANING
The father’s testimony holds the marriage he arranged beside the husband’s rejection. The daughter is named before the elders, but her own voice is not heard in this sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A publicly recognized marriage guarantees affection; this verse places the bond beside the husband’s hatred.
THE ROOT
נָתַתִּי
natatti
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
give, set, place
“gave” in this verse is natatti. The root carries giving and placing together: the father describes his daughter’s marriage through an act he performs. That wording makes the arrangement clear while her own voice remains absent from his testimony.
ALSO GROWS
natan: to give, set, or place
נָתַן
These linked senses bring out the act of placing someone into a relationship, which the father names as his own.
mattanah: gift or present
מַתָּנָה
This noun grows from the same root and shows how Hebrew links giving with what is given.
וַיִּשְׂנָאֶהָ
wayyisna'ehah
GROWS FROM
שׂנא
s-n-ʾ
hate, hold in aversion
“hates” in this verse is wayyisna'ehah. The Hebrew verb has “her” attached as its object: the hatred is directed at the daughter, not left as a vague condition of the marriage. The same root names both the act of hating and hatred itself.
ALSO GROWS
sin'ah: hatred
שִׂנְאָה
The noun names the same hostility that the verse describes as the husband’s action.
sone: one who hates
שׂוֹנֵא
This form names the person by the same root action, sharpening the verse’s focus on who directs the hatred toward her.
THE PATTERN
A contested reality becomes publicly answerable when it is spoken before witnesses.
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.But if he does not hear you, take along with you one or two more, so that upon the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand.Do not take up an accusation against an elder, unless it rests upon two or three witnesses.THE THREAD
And Jacob did so and filled her week, and he gave him Rachel his daughter as a wife also.The same נתן (natan), “give, set, place,” root appears in the marriage wording: a father gives his daughter to a man as wife. That echo lets the father’s “I gave my daughter” register as an act of arrangement, now spoken beside the husband’s hatred.
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