What Does Deuteronomy 22:19 Mean in the King James?
And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
His false accusation costs him money and bars him from sending her away, while the same sentence binds her to him for life.
THE MEANING
A damaging charge against a woman carries a material penalty, and the accuser loses the right to send her away. Yet the remedy binds her to the man who accused her for life; the verse names both the cost imposed on him and the permanence imposed on her.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The claim that a man can publicly damage a woman’s standing and walk away without consequence.
THE ROOT
לְשַׁלְּחָהּ
leshallechah
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send forth, release, or let go.
The phrase translated “put her away” comes from shalach, the same root for sending forth and releasing. The verse forbids the accuser from releasing her for all his days, but its permanence also keeps her bound to him; the root makes the asymmetry of that prohibition visible.
ALSO GROWS
shilluaḥ: Sending away; dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It shares the root of the act he is forbidden to do: send her away.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of the waters of Siloam.
שִׁלֹּחַ
It shows the root’s broader sense of something sent out, sharpening the force of the husband’s barred act of sending her away.
רָע
ra
GROWS FROM
רעע
To be bad, harmful, or evil.
The phrase “evil name” joins a damaging quality to a name cast over the woman. This root can describe harmfulness and wicked action, so the accusation is treated as something with real consequences, not a weightless opinion.
ALSO GROWS
roa: Evil or wickedness.
רֹעַ
It names the harm carried by the accusation’s “evil” character.
ra'ah: To do evil or act wickedly.
רָעָה
It shows the same root describing harmful action, not only a bad quality.
THE PATTERN
A false accusation is treated as an act with consequences, not harmless speech.
Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.THE THREAD
When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.The same root, shalach, appears in both verses: here he may not “put her away,” while Deuteronomy 24:1 describes sending a divorced woman out. The shared root shows dismissal as a power this verse removes from the accuser, even as it binds her to him for life.
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