What Does Deuteronomy 22:20 Mean in the King James?
But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
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
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.
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 iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.THE THREAD
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.“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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