...you shall not commit adultery... (Exodus 20:13)

Deuteronomy 22:22 If a man will be found lying with a woman who is married to a husband, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman; and you will have removed the evil from your midst.

Deuteronomy 22:23-27 If there will be a virgin girl who is betrothed to a man, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall take them both to the gate of that city and pelt them with stones and they shall die: the girl because of the fact that she did not cry out in the city, and the man because of the fact that he afflicted the wife of his fellow, and you will have removed the evil from your midst. But if it is in the field that the man will find the betrothed girl, and the man will seize her and lie with her, only the man who lies with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the girl, for the girl has committed no capital sin, for like a man who rises up against his fellow and murders him, so is this thing; for he found her in the field, the betrothed girl cried out, but she had no savior.

Committing adultery is a capital crime. Adultery is when a married woman lies with another man, and when a man lies with a married woman. Both the woman and the adulterer must die--and they will be killed according to the Law. But if a man rapes a married woman, then he alone will die--for the woman committed no crime.

This is a harsh Judgement, for it would deprive a man of his wife after he had already been betrayed by her sin. A man defiles his fellow's wife, and she must die along with the adulterer. Thus commiting adultery becomes an act of "murder," for to defile your fellow's wife, is to kill her, according to the Law. Nonetheless, the Law must not be changed and it must not be perverted. For if such a man and such a woman, as those who commit adultery, would be allowed to live, then this would be a curse upon Israel and outrage before Hashem. A woman who betrays her husband disgraces herself and is defiled. She cannot live, for she would shame his household and be a curse upon his name. She must not be banished, for she would live like a harlot in Israel, being impregnated in sin, and would be a disgrace, a curse, and a traitor in her nation; for such a thing cannot occur in Israel. Nor can she be forgiven, for she cannot return to the husband she betrayed. Such a mother can only be honored in death, for she would be a thorn in the side of her husband and would lead her children astray. A woman who betrays her husband and becomes a piece of flesh, will be cut off from her people, and her sin will end in death.

And a man who would defile his fellow's wife, should surely die. He could have taken another woman; one who was not married, but instead he ruined the wife of another and destroyed his fellow's house. This is an act of "murder," for not only did he defile his fellow's wife, but he ruined a family as well. The husband will be deprived of his wife, and his children will grow without a mother--this person will surely die for his sin; for all the lives he has ruined--he will be killed.

The Eighth Commandment

(1) Posts