For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.
The law sets out the case of a woman pledged in betrothal who is seized and violated in the field or open country, where she cries out for help but there is no one present to save or rescue her. Her cry, joined with the fact that no rescuer was at hand, proves that she did not yield or consent to the act and therefore she is to be counted free from guilt. Guilt rests on the attacker alone, and for him the law prescribes death.
That sentence of death belonged to the order of a theocracy and is not laid down as a sentence for civil governments to carry out. Human law may still punish such assaults in its own sphere, while God himself vindicates his own justice. In figure the betrothed damsel is Zion, pledged to the Prince of Peace, so that when the emissary of Satan seeks to entice her away from her Lord she has only to call upon the Lord and she will find safety and deliverance.
The law sets out the case of a woman pledged in betrothal who is seized and violated in the field or open country, where she cries out for help but there is no one present to save or rescue her. Her cry, joined with the fact that no rescuer was at hand, proves that she did not yield or consent to the act and therefore she is to be counted free from guilt. Guilt rests on the attacker alone, and for him the law prescribes death.
That sentence of death belonged to the order of a theocracy and is not laid down as a sentence for civil governments to carry out. Human law may still punish such assaults in its own sphere, while God himself vindicates his own justice. In figure the betrothed damsel is Zion, pledged to the Prince of Peace, so that when the emissary of Satan seeks to entice her away from her Lord she has only to call upon the Lord and she will find safety and deliverance.