What Does Deuteronomy 22:21 Mean in the King James?
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 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
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
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
“to play the whore” 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 thou shalt put the evil away from among you.And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.THE THREAD
And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.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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