What Does Deuteronomy 22:25 Mean?
But if a man finds the pledged young woman in the field, and the man grips her and lies down with her, then the man alone who lay down with her shall die.
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 a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:THE KEY
The field is only the setting: the Hebrew verb names the man’s seizure, and the sentence falls on him alone.
THE MEANING
The verse identifies the encounter as force: the man takes hold of her and lies with her. Its sentence falls on the man alone, leaving no blame on the woman for being found in the field.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A woman’s isolation makes her responsible for sexual violence against her.
THE ROOT
הֶחֱזִיק
heḥĕzîq
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong, make strong, take hold, or prevail.
“grips” in this verse is heḥĕzîq. The English word “force” can sound like a generic label, but the root spans being strong, strengthening, and taking hold. Here its taking-hold sense names the man’s physical overpowering, leaving the action with him rather than describing a mutual encounter.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong or prevail.
חָזַק
Strength and overpowering share one root; here the man’s action is the decisive force.
ḥizzēq: Strengthen or make firm.
חִזֵּק
This branch makes the root’s forceful sense visible beside the verse’s taking hold of her.
THE PATTERN
When the text names sexual coercion, it locates the violence in the coercer’s act and holds him accountable.
But to the young woman you shall do nothing. There is no falling short in the young woman worthy of death, for as when a man rises against his neighbor and crushes his living soul, so is this word.But he would not hear and respond to her voice, and, gripping her harder than she, bent her low, and lay with her.That no one step over and grasp more against his brother in any deed, because the Lord is the one who brings alignment out against all such, as we told you before and bore witness.THE THREAD
But he would not hear and respond to her voice, and, gripping her harder than she, bent her low, and lay with her.The Hebrew root חזק (ḥazaq, “be strong; take hold”) appears in both verses: Deuteronomy uses it for “force,” and Samuel for “being stronger.” Both pair that overpowering with “lie with”; Tamar’s refusal is spoken aloud, making explicit the coercion Deuteronomy already locates in the man’s action.
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