What Does Deuteronomy 22:21 Mean?
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.
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
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 KEY
The verse turns a sexual accusation at a family threshold into a public execution, then names that killing the removal of evil.
THE MEANING
Here, the men of the city stone the accused woman until she dies. The verse calls this killing the removal of evil from Israel, binding public shame, community judgment, and lethal force in one command. The claim of purification and the violence that enacts it remain joined on the page.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The phrase “put evil away” can sound abstract or figurative; here the verse states the means plainly: communal stoning to death.
THE ROOT
נְבָלָה
nĕbālāh
GROWS FROM
נבל
n-b-l
to be foolish, senseless, or disgraceful
“withering thing” in this verse is nĕbālāh. Here, “folly” bears the sense of disgraceful outrage, not a small error. The verse labels the woman’s alleged act as a public affront in Israel and then commands communal stoning; the root’s force is in the condemnation, while the death sentence comes from the verse’s explicit command.
ALSO GROWS
nāḇāl: a fool, a person marked by morally senseless conduct
נָבָל
The shared root shows that the verse’s “folly” is framed as conduct that violates communal moral order.
nĕbālāh: a disgraceful or outrageous act
נְבָלָה
This noun names the deed as scandalous before the verse specifies its punishment.
לִזְנוֹת
liznōt
GROWS FROM
זנה
z-n-h
to commit sexual unfaithfulness or prostitution
“harlot” in this verse is liznōt. The Hebrew form is an infinitive verb, tied to “her father’s house.” English “play the whore” can sound like a fixed identity; the verb keeps the focus on the act the verse alleges and punishes.
ALSO GROWS
zōnāh: a prostitute; a woman engaged in prostitution
זֹנָה
This noun from the same root makes the sexual register of the verb explicit.
zĕnûnîm: acts of sexual unfaithfulness or prostitution
זְנוּנִים
This form shows that the same root can name the conduct itself, as well as a person associated with it.
THE PATTERN
When a community names an act as evil, it removes the accused person to mark the boundary of the community.
The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall burn the evil out from your midst.And Joshua said, Why have you stirred us? The LORD will stir you this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.But those outside, God will judge. Lift out the wicked one from among yourselves.THE THREAD
And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be made to die; because he has spoken to turn you aside from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and ransomed you from the house of bondage, to push you off the way the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall burn out the evil from your midst.The same Hebrew verb, בָּעַר (baʿar, burn or purge away), appears in the formula translated “put the evil away.” There, the formula follows a death sentence for a prophet; here, it follows the woman’s stoning, showing how one phrase frames lethal removal as communal cleansing.
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