What Does Deuteronomy 22:22 Mean?
If a man is found lying down with a woman who belongs to a husband, then both of them shall die, the man who lies with the woman and the woman. So you shall burn out the evil from Israel.
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
If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.THE KEY
The verb behind “put away” can mean “burn” or “consume,” so the two deaths are the stated means of removing evil.
THE MEANING
This verse confronts the reader with a severe claim: sexual betrayal reaches beyond the couple into the community, and both participants die. It makes their deaths the means of removing evil from Israel. The same sentence is named for the man and the woman.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that adultery is only a private matter dissolves here: the verse gives the community a role and names death for both participants.
THE ROOT
וּבִעַרְתָּ
uvi'arta
GROWS FROM
בער
b-ʿ-r
Burn or consume; in this legal formula, remove or eradicate.
“burn out the evil” in this verse is uvi'arta. The closing verb can carry the concrete sense “burn” or “consume” as well as “remove.” The verse states that the deaths of both participants are the means by which evil is eradicated from Israel.
ALSO GROWS
baʿar: Burn or consume.
בָּעַר
This concrete sense lies beneath the verb translated “put away.”
biʿer: Clear away or eradicate.
בִּעֵר
This form of the same root appears in removal language like the verse’s closing command.
בְּעֻלַת בַּעַל
be'ulat ba'al
GROWS FROM
בעל
b-ʿ-l
Possess or be master over; as a noun, master, owner, or husband.
“belongs to a husband” in this verse is be'ulat ba'al. The phrase uses be’ulat ba’al, a term for a married woman built from the word ba’al. That word’s range includes husband, master, and owner, so the Hebrew carries a shade of claim and status within the relationship term.
ALSO GROWS
baʿal: Husband, master, or owner.
בַּעַל
This is the word paired with be’ulat in the verse’s description of the marriage bond.
be'ulah: A married woman.
בְּעוּלָה
This form names the woman through the same root as ba’al, making the bond visible in Hebrew.
THE PATTERN
When wrongdoing is treated as a communal threat, the text assigns the community the work of removing it.
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 the man who commits adultery with another man's wife, and the one who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely die.But those outside, God will judge. Lift out the wicked one from among yourselves.THE THREAD
In that day, says the LORD, you will call me Ishi, my man, and you will call me no more Baali, my master.Deuteronomy’s בְּעֻלַת בַּעַל (be’ulat ba’al, “a married woman”) shares בעל (baʿal) with Hosea’s בַּעְלִי (baʿali, “my master/husband”). Hosea’s contrast with אִישִׁי (ishi, “my man/husband”) makes the wider master and owner shade in Deuteronomy’s word for husband visible.
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