What Does Deuteronomy 22:24 Mean in the King James?

Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour’s wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.

Deuteronomy 22:24 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The verse’s “humbled” names affliction and violation, while its verdict makes the woman’s silence in the city a cause for death.

THE MEANING

The verse assigns death to both: the man for violating his neighbor’s wife, and the woman because she does not cry out within the city. Its reasoning treats the city as a place where a cry could summon help, and her silence there as evidence against her.

THE ROOT

עִנָּה

ʿinnāh

GROWS FROM

ענה

ʿānāh: afflict, oppress, bring low; in this context, violate.

“humbled” in this verse is ʿinnāh. The root holds more than loss of status: it names inflicted affliction and, in this context, sexual violation. The word joins the man’s act to harm done to another.

ALSO GROWS

ʿānî: afflicted one; poor

עָנִי

This word describes a person marked by being pressed down, preserving the root’s force of affliction.

ʿŏnî: affliction; misery

עֳנִי

It names the suffering itself, keeping the man’s act tied to harm rather than mere embarrassment.

צָעֲקָה

ṣāʿăqāh

GROWS FROM

צעק

ṣāʿaq: cry out, call for help.

“cried” in this verse is ṣāʿăqāh. The verb describes an audible outcry. The sentence makes whether a cry is raised within the city part of its reasoning about blame.

ALSO GROWS

ṣāʿaq: cry out; call for help

צָעַק

This is the verb’s basic action, emphasizing a cry directed outward.

ṣĕʿāqāh: outcry; cry for help

צְעָקָה

The noun makes the cry an event others can hear, echoing the verse’s focus on the city.

וּבִעַרְתָּ

ūḇiʿartā

GROWS FROM

בער

bāʿar: burn, consume; in this construction, clear or remove.

“put away” in this verse is ūḇiʿartā. The closing command carries the language of clearing or consuming evil from the community. It places the deaths within a communal purge logic, not just a private judgment.

ALSO GROWS

bāʿar: burn; consume

בָּעַר

This basic sense gives the command its forceful image of removal.

biʿēr: clear away; remove

בִּעֵר

This form appears in commands to remove evil, tying the verse’s ending to its stated communal purpose.

THE PATTERN

The text uses a cry’s reach to reveal who suffers and whether help is available.

For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.

Deuteronomy 22:27 · KJVThe adjacent ruling says no one could save the woman, making the reach of her cry part of how the text assigns responsibility.

And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

Exodus 3:7 · KJVThe cry of people under taskmasters reaches a hearer who sees their affliction and knows their suffering.

Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

James 5:4 · KJVThe workers’ cries make wage theft audible and enter the hearing of the Lord.

THE THREAD

And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

Genesis 34:2 · KJV

The same root, ⁨עָנָה⁩ (ʿānāh, afflict or violate), describes Shechem’s act against Dinah, rendered “defiled” here. That usage reveals the force inside “humbled”: the word carries the weight of inflicted violation.

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