Deuteronomy chapter 22

After reading chapter 22:

*Verses 1-12 are a series of odd laws that seem to have nowhere else to go:
-Give lost animals and personal property back to their rightful owners. No "finders keepers."
-Help a fellow Israelite restore a fallen animal to its feet.
-Noone must wear the clothes of the opposite sex, God detests people who do that. (The obvious inference would be that some people did this at that time.)
-Wild bird eggs can be harvested from nests, but the mother birds must be left alone.
-A railing must be built around the edge of a roof, so that the owner of the house won't be liable if someone falls off the roof.
-Do not plant two kinds of seeds in a vinyard or the vinyard will be defiled.
-Do not yoke an ox and a donkey together.
-Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
-Make tassels on the four corners of your cloak

*The rest of the chapter contains some rather barbaric marriage rules. Basically, if a man expects to be marrying a virgin, he better get one. If he doesn't like his wife, he can yell foul after the marriage and the bride's parents have to provide proof of the bride's virginity in the form of a cloth stained with blood from the wedding night. If there is no proof, the woman is to be stoned to death at the door of her father's house by the men of the town. If there is proof of her virginity,  it is to be shown to the village elders and the accusing husband is to give his father- in- law 100 silver shekels. Then he can never divorce the woman. Poor woman.
-If a man sleeps with another man's wife, they must both die. No exceptions.
-If a man sleeps with a virgin in town, who was pledged to be married, they must both be stoned to death. 1. Because she belonged to another man. 2. Because she was in town and didn't scream. Um, how do they know this in advance? What if she was threatened with death if she screamed?
-If a man rapes a virgin in the countryside, who was pledged to be married, only the man is to be killed. After all,  she screamed bloody murder and no one could hear her. That makes her innocent. Again, how do they know this? She could have been quite willing and no one would know the difference.
-If a man rapes a virgin who is not pledged to be married, he must give her father fifty shekels of silver and marry her. This marriage is for life, no divorce permitted. Poor woman. Unless, the two of them cook up this scheme so that the father could have no choice but to agree to the marriage.
-A man may not sleep with his father's wife. We would say "duh" but if this wasn't an issue, why is it mentioned? Reuben, son of Jacob (Israel), did this very thing in Genesis chapter 35.

Lesson: It's safer for a woman to be raped in the country, especially if she was already pledged to be married. Then she gets to live and won't have to marry her rapist.