What Does Deuteronomy 22:17 Mean?
And look, he has set charges of speech against her, saying, "I did not find your daughter a maiden." And these are the evidence cloths of my daughter's maidenhood. And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city.
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, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.THE KEY
The accusation is made of words that are also matters, and the cloth laid before the elders turns those words into a public case.
THE MEANING
An accusation about the daughter’s sexual status is brought before the city’s elders: the husband speaks, her father counters, and a cloth is laid out as evidence. The daughter has no spoken line in this verse, though her body and reputation are what the hearing concerns.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An accusation is not itself a settled finding: the verse places a counterclaim and evidence before the elders.
THE ROOT
דְּבָרִים
devarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; its noun branch can mean word, matter, or thing.
Here the word can name both speech and matters: the charge is not just talk but a matter carried into judgment. The cloth supplies a visible counterclaim, placing spoken accusation and physical evidence together before the elders.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
The charge becomes a matter for the elders to consider.
dibber: Spoke or uttered
דִּבֵּר
This verb form highlights the act of voicing the accusation and the father’s reply.
וּפָרְשׂוּ
u-farsu
GROWS FROM
פרשׂ
p-r-ś
To spread out or extend.
“spread” in this verse is u-farsu. The verb makes the cloth’s role concrete: it is extended into public view so the claim can be examined. In Psalm 143:6, the same root describes hands extended toward God, linking evidence laid before judges with need laid bare in prayer.
ALSO GROWS
u-farsu: And they spread out
וּפָרְשׂוּ
The elders are shown the cloth as it is laid out before them.
perashti: I spread out
פֵּרַשְׂתִּי
Psalm 143:6 uses this form for stretching out hands toward God.
THE PATTERN
An accusation remains open to examination until counter testimony is heard and the matter is established.
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.The aligned one at the head of his own contention seems straight, but his neighbor comes and searches him out.Does our instruction judge a man before it hears him, and know what he does?THE THREAD
I spread my hands to you; my living soul thirsts for you as a parched land. Selah.The same verb used for spreading the cloth appears in the psalm’s “I stretch forth my hands.” In one verse, something is laid open before elders as evidence; in the other, hands are opened toward God in need.
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