What Does Deuteronomy 22:20 Mean?
But if this word stands firm, and maidenhood is not found in the young woman.
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
But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:THE KEY
Here a woman’s body becomes the test that turns an accusation into a legal finding.
THE MEANING
The condition is explicit: the charge is true, and the tokens of virginity are absent. The young woman’s body stands as evidence in the legal judgment that follows. The line keeps that burden visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An accusation alone is not treated as the finding; the verse makes the result depend on the claim being true and the signs being absent.
THE ROOT
אֱמֶת
emet
GROWS FROM
אמן
Firm, steady, reliable enough to support trust.
“stands firm” in this verse is emet. The word rendered “true” comes from a root of firmness and steadiness. Its branches connect truth with what can be trusted and what stands; here, the charge must hold against the evidence.
ALSO GROWS
aman: To be firm, support, or be reliable.
אָמַן
Truth carries the sense of something steady enough to bear weight.
emunah: Trust; firmness or steadiness.
אֱמוּנָה
This branch joins what is true with what can be relied upon.
הַדָּבָר
ha-davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a word, utterance, or matter.
The Hebrew word for “thing” also means “word” or “matter,” holding utterance and case together. The verse concerns when a spoken charge stands as an established matter.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: To speak.
דִּבֵּר
The same root links the accusation to the act of saying it.
devarim: Words or matters.
דְּבָרִים
The charge is both something spoken and the matter being judged.
THE PATTERN
A charge becomes actionable only when its truth 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.And in your instruction it stands written, that the witness of two people is true.This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand.THE THREAD
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.“This thing” is דָּבָר (davar, word or matter), the same word used for “matter” here. The connection shows a spoken charge becoming an established matter through evidence.
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