If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;

If a man have espoused a damsel that is a virgin, and some one find her in the city, and lie with her,

If a damsel, a virgin, be betrothed to some one, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her,

'When there is a damsel, a virgin, betrothed to a man, and a man hath found her in a city, and lain with her;

If a young virgin has given her word to be married to a man, and another man meeting her in the town, has connection with her;

If a man has betrothed a girl who is a virgin, and if someone finds her in the city and he lies with her,

Quum fuerit puella virgo desponsata viro, et invenerit eam aliquis in urbe, coieritque cum ea:

If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed. The severity of the punishment is now extended further, and a betrothed woman is counted as a wife; and this for a very good reason, because she has plighted her troth, and it is a token of abandoned incontinency for the mind of a woman to be so alienated from the man to whom she is betrothed, as to prostitute her virginity to another's embraces. But since one who has been ravished is not criminal, a woman is absolved if she be forced in a field, because it is probable that she yielded unwillingly, inasmuch as she was far from assistance. Although, however, the terms are accommodated to the comprehension of a rude people, it was the intention of God to distinguish force from consent. Thus if a girl had been forced in a retired part of a building, from whence her cries could not be heard, God would undoubtedly have her acquitted, provided she could prove her innocence by satisfactory testimony and conjecture.

If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband,.... But not married, not as yet brought home to her husband's house, and the marriage consummated; for the Jews distinguish between being betrothed or espoused, and married; and generally there was some time between the one and the other. And a wife was obtained in this way by three things; by money, which was the most usual; and by writing, which was to be done before witnesses, and with her consent; and by copulation, which, though valid, was not so much approved of (a). There is a whole treatise in the Misnah, called Kiddushin, or Espousals, which largely treats of this matter:
and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; with her consent, as might be presumed by her not crying out, when, had she, she might have been heard, being in a city; and her being there also makes against her, since, being betrothed to a man, she ought to have abode in her father's house till her husband fetched her home, and not to have gadded abroad in the city, where she was exposed to temptation.
(a) Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 1.

In connection with the seduction of a virgin (נער, puella, a marriageable girl; בּתוּלה, virgo immaculata, a virgin), two, or really three, cases are distinguished; viz., (1) whether she was betrothed (Deuteronomy 22:23-27), or not betrothed (Deuteronomy 22:28, Deuteronomy 22:29); (2) if she were betrothed, whether it was (a) in the town (Deuteronomy 22:23, Deuteronomy 22:24) or (b) in the open field (Deuteronomy 22:25-27) that she had been violated by a man.