Does Leviticus 19:20 imply that if the slave woman was not betrothed, it was not a sin to sleep with her? What punishment would it have been? Is the primary sin harm of the owner’s property or sexual sin in itself? Why is no monetary compensation paid, unlike Deuteronomy 22?<\/p>\n
Thank you!<\/p>\n\t
“Now if a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave acquired for another man, but who has in no way been redeemed nor given her freedom, there shall be punishment; they shall not, however, be put to death, because she was not free. He shall bring his guilt offering to the LORD to the doorway of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. The priest shall also make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the LORD for his sin which he has committed, and the sin which he has committed will be forgiven him<\/em>” (Leviticus 19:20-22).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The situation involves a man having sex with a slave belonging to another person. In other words, she is a slave who has been married to another man (a concubine) or has been slated to be married by another man. Normally, having sex with a married woman or a betrothed woman carries the death penalty for both the man and the woman (Deuteronomy 22:22-24). However, it is recognized that because she is a slave, she was in a difficult situation. The man can’t be forced to marry the slave woman because she belongs to another man (Deuteronomy 22:28-29).<\/p>\n
The law does require a punishment of both the man and the woman, though not the death penalty. There is an implication that the punishment comes after an investigation, so the punishment would be set by a judge. The punishment is not stated, but some think it was scourging.<\/p>\n
Even though a physical punishment is given, the man is still guilty of sin. He is required to bring a special offering of a ram. The priest is to use the ram as a guilt offering to atone for the man’s sin. This offering is to God, not the owner of the slave.<\/p>\n
The money in Deuteronomy 22:28-29 was for the violated woman’s dowry, not in compensation for the crime. The man was expected to marry the woman, though the woman’s father had the right to prevent the marriage; the dowry had to be paid regardless. In the case of the slave woman, there is no family to pay the dowry to.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Does Leviticus 19:20 imply that if the slave woman was not betrothed, it was not a sin to sleep with her? What punishment would it have been? Is the primary sin harm of the owner’s property or sexual sin in itself? Why is no monetary compensation paid, unlike Deuteronomy 22? Thank you! Answer: “Now…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1572,1515],"class_list":["post-69235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-fornication","tag-slavery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23831,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-fornication-not-a-sin-under-the-old-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":69235,"position":0},"title":"Was fornication not a sin under the Old Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Since the Old Testament had no shedding of blood for fornication, could it be considered a sin under the Old Testament? Answer: There were numerous types of offerings given to God depending on the circumstances. A sin-offering was given when the person's sin did not have restitution included in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51791,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-all-sin-premeditated\/","url_meta":{"origin":69235,"position":1},"title":"Is all sin premeditated?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is all sin premeditated? Answer: I was intrigued by your question. I am not sure what you exactly mean by premeditated and what boundaries to go by, but in the Bible, there are sins mentioned that people don't realize what they are doing. There are also other sins where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28462,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-moses-accept-aarons-excuse-for-not-eating-the-sacrifice\/","url_meta":{"origin":69235,"position":2},"title":"Why did Moses accept Aaron’s excuse for not eating the sacrifice?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Leviticus 10:16-20, I understand that Moses was upset with Eleazar and Ithamar because they didn't eat the sin offering as they were instructed to.\u00a0 However, I don't see why Moses was satisfied when Aaron told him that they did burnt offering and sin offering on the same day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83447,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-azazel-a-spiritual-being\/","url_meta":{"origin":69235,"position":3},"title":"Is Azazel a spiritual being?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In the Holy Bible, is Azazel a spiritual being? Why is an animal given to him, which bears people's sins, instead of being given to God? I'm confused. Thanks. Answer: \"Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27442,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wouldnt-it-have-been-a-sin-for-tamar-and-amnon-to-marry\/","url_meta":{"origin":69235,"position":4},"title":"Wouldn’t it have been a sin for Tamar and Amnon to marry?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was it not a sin for Tamar and Amnon to get married because they were from the same father, even though they had sex? Answer: A difficulty arises when multiple laws are violated at the same time and penalties for these different laws vary. Amnon lusted after an unmarried\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7869,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-inherit-sin-but-do-not-inherit-the-punishment\/","url_meta":{"origin":69235,"position":5},"title":"Do we inherit sin, but do not inherit the punishment?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In light of Ezekiel 18:20, do you feel we are products of our fathers? Can the sin nature be passed down from our fathers to us? I realize there is no punishment from the sin nature of our fathers to us, but the possibility is always there, is it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}