Deut 22:26 But if a woman who is not betrothed... Stop right here. In those days before she reaches maidenhood, a woman is usually betrothed. Therefore one who is not betrothed is already in dire circumstances because apparently nobody has asked for her.
This was probably of great shame in your average village. Something a woman would have a hard time living with, since the whole village would know and feel sorry for her.
So if a woman (that no one has offered to marry) is raped, the unwanted woman gains a husband who is now obligated to care for her FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.
I wonder how many rapists today would rape their victims if their whole world saw to it that they took care of her for the rest of her days?
So you see, this isnÂ’t likely to happen very often because if the man was so desperate for her that he would do such a thing, he could have offered to marry her in the first place. He is now sort of forced to marry the woman he didnÂ’t have the gumption to ask for in the first place, thus securing for the woman, a man responsible to pay for EVERYTHING, and you can bet that whole town would be sure he obeyed the laws of how a man is to treat his wife.
Now if the woman (notice woman not child, for that would be a death sentence) if the woman WAS betrothed and thus this man stole her from her future, then he was to DIE. She would be considered sinless and her life would go on.
And it is for these reasons that few Jewish women (who were not possibly looking for a husband) went out alone and unprotected.
Now letÂ’s look at the example of Dinah, who was raped, and what her brothers did in response before this law was written.
Genesis 34:13 and on, you might want to check it out. Circumsized and then murdered while in the pain of it...
Talk about a manÂ’s worst nightmare.
I donÂ’t know that God agreed with what DinahÂ’s brothers did, but God helped them escape after they did it. Which sort of gave a history to all men an idea of what might happen if you go about raping the daughters of a King.
God is not blind. No matter what happens on this planet, God is the final Judge of all actions on this planet. There is no injustice that doesnÂ’t go unpunished, the only sin we do not feel wrath of are the sins that have already been paid for at the Cross, which has been offered to all, that all may reconcile with God, for we all have sinned.