DAWN
Daily Arts Web Nucleus
Discover the Arts! Each day a different image from the Literary, Performing, or Visual Arts representing a portion of Scripture plus an explanation with links and a discussion forum 2014 April 4
View of the Village (1868)
Jean-Frederic Bazille (1841-1870)
Impressionist Style
Musee Fabre, Montpellier, France
Image Source: Web Gallery of Art
Explanation: Deuteronomy 22 contains laws which promote wholesome relationships with others, interspersed with laws which promote clarity and purity of spirit. The laws relate particularly to village life and especially to the proper treatment of women (both elements being represented in the painting above).
In the first of these laws, the Israelites are instructed to have high regard for the property of their brethren. They are to take measures to restore anything which they find which belongs to their brethren. And, if an animal which belongs to their brother is in difficult circumstances, they are to help it (1-4). Men and women are not to be transvestites -- those who wear the garments of the opposite sex -- because this is an abomination to the LORD (5). If someone finds a bird's nest they may take the eggs or the young, but they must let the mother bird go free, that it may go well with them and that they may prolong their days (6-7). The people are instructed to build a "battlement" or "parapet" for their roof to prevent anyone from falling off (8). They are told not to mix various kinds of seeds in their vineyards, to not mix an ox and an ass together for plowing, and to not wear garments with a mixture of various threads, such as wool and linen (9-11). They are not to make fringes on their garments (12). If a man falsely accuses his wife of not being a virgin when he married her, the parents of the woman are to come before the elders and show them the tokens of her virginity. For his lie he will be chastised and charged 100 shekels of silver which will be given to the woman's father. And the man must keep her as his wife. But if the charge is true, then the woman shall be stoned at the door of her father's house (13-21). If a man commits adultery with a married woman, both will be executed (22). Likewise, if a man commits adultery with an engaged woman within a city, and the woman does not cry out for help, both will be executed (23-24). But if a man forces a woman to have sex in a field, then only the man will be executed, because she cried out but there was none to help her (25-27). If a man has sex with a virgin he must pay her father 50 shekels of silver and take her as his wife (28-29). A man may not marry his father's wife, meaning his stepmother (30).
Deuteronomy 22
1 Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.
2 And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again.
3 In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment; and with all lost thing of thy brother's, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself.
4 Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again.
5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
6 If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young:
7 But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.
8 When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.
9 Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.
10 Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.
11 Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.
12 Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.
13 If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her,
14 And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid:
15 Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate:
16 And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her;
17 And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
18 And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;
19 And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.
20 But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
21 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.
22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.
23 If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;
24 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.
25 But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:
26 But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:
27 For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.
28 If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
29 Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.
30 A man shall not take his father's wife, nor discover his father's skirt.
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copyright 2014, Scott Souza
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