Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter the Twenty-second
Moses repeats certain laws of mercy, to be exercised even toward beasts, as of helping up an ox, of not taking the mother with the young, of not ploughing with an ox and an ass together. Secondly, vers. 13, a bridegroom who falsely charges his bride with fornication is commanded to be scourged and to pay a hundred sicles of silver. Thirdly, vers. 20, an adulterer and adulteress, even if only betrothed, are commanded to be stoned. Fourthly, vers. 25, he who does violence to an unbetrothed virgin is commanded to pay 50 sicles of silver, and to marry the virgin, and always keep her.
1. Thou shalt not pass by, if thou see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, but thou shalt bring them back to thy brother, 2. even though thy brother be not nigh, or thou know him not: thou shalt bring them to thy house, and they shall be with thee until thy brother seek them, and receive them. 3. In like manner shalt thou do with his ass, and with his raiment, and with every thing of thy brother’s that is lost: if thou find it, neglect it not as belonging to another. 4. If thou see thy brother’s ass or his ox fallen down in the way, thou shalt not slight it, but shalt lift it up with him. 5. A woman shall not be clothed with man’s apparel, neither shall a man use woman’s apparel: for he that doeth these things is abominable before God. 6. If thou find as thou walkest by the way, a bird’s nest in a tree, or on the ground, and the dam sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take her with her young: 7. but shalt let her go, keeping the young which thou hast caught: that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live a long time. 8. When thou shalt build a new house, thou shalt make a battlement to the roof round about: lest blood be shed in thy house, and thou be guilty, another slipping and falling headlong. 9. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest both the seed which thou hast sown, and the fruits of the vineyard be defiled together. 10. Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together. 11. Thou shalt not wear a garment that is woven of woollen and linen together. 12. Thou shalt make strings in the hem at the four corners of thy cloak, wherewith thou shalt be covered. 13. If a man take a wife, and afterwards hate her, 14. and seek occasions to put her away, laying to her charge a very bad name, and say: I took this woman to wife, and going in to her I found her not a virgin; 15. her father and mother shall take her, and shall bring with them the tokens of her virginity to the ancients of the city that are in the gate; 16. and the father shall say: I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and because he hateth her, 17. he layeth to her charge a very bad name, so as to say: I found not thy daughter a virgin; and behold these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the garment before the ancients of the city: 18. and the ancients of that city shall take that man, and scourge him, 19. condemning him moreover in a hundred sicles of silver, which he shall give to the damsel’s father, because he hath defamed with a very bad name a virgin of Israel: and he shall have her to wife, and may not put her away all the days of his life. 20. But if what he laid to her charge be true, and virginity be not found in the damsel, 21. they shall cast her out of the doors of her father’s house, and the men of that city shall stone her to death, because she hath done a wicked thing in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house; and thou shalt take away the evil out of the midst of thee. 22. If a man sleep with another man’s wife, they shall both die, that is to say, the adulterer and the adulteress: and thou shalt take away the evil out of Israel. 23. If a man have espoused a virgin, and some man find her in the city, and lie with her, 24. thou shalt bring them both out to the gate of that city, and they shall be stoned: the damsel, because she cried not out, being in the city; the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour’s wife: and thou shalt take away the evil from the midst of thee. 25. But if a man find a damsel that is betrothed in the field, and taking hold of her, lie with her, he alone shall die: 26. the damsel shall suffer nothing, neither is she guilty of death: for as a robber riseth up against his brother, and killeth his soul, so also did the damsel suffer. 27. She was alone in the field: she cried out, and there was no man to deliver her. 28. If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, who hath no spouse, and taking her lie with her, and the matter come to judgment: 29. he that lay with her shall give to the father of the maid fifty sicles of silver, and shall have her to wife, because he hath humbled her: he may not put her away all the days of his life. 30. No man shall take his father’s wife, nor uncover his covering.
1. THOU SHALT NOT SEE THY BROTHER’S OX (namely a Jew’s, who is of thy nation and race, as well as of thy religion. Under ox understand horse, mule and other animals: for the reason of all is equal) GO ASTRAY, AND PASS BY: BUT SHALT BRING IT BACK TO THY BROTHER.—God ordained this to foster and exercise mutual charity among the Jews. For the same cause he commands, vers. 4, that the fallen ass of a neighbour be lifted up. Why should not Christians then do the same, even though they be husbandmen and peasants? Alfonso, king of Aragon, Naples and Sicily, when journeying through Campania, came upon a muleteer, whose beast laden with meal was stuck in the mud, and the muleteer begged the help of passers-by; the king himself, dismounting from his horse, gave his labour to the muleteer in drawing the ass out of the mud; who, when he recognised the king, falling on his knees begged pardon; whom he dismissed with gentle words, and by this deed won the peoples of Campania to himself. Panormitanus is witness, in his Life, book i.
Mystically, if God commands an ass lying under its burden to be lifted up, how much more does he command a man groaning under sin to be raised and led out? St. Bernard, epistle 203: “The virgin of Israel is fallen,” he says, “and there is none to raise her up. How long shall gold lie in the mire? Take up the pearl, take up, lift the most splendid and precious gem out of the dunghill, lift it before it be trodden under the feet of swine, that is, of unclean spirits.”