Deuteronomy 22:20

Summary

The verse states a legal condition: if the accusation mentioned in the preceding context turns out to be true, and no evidence of virginity was found for the young woman, then this condition triggers the consequence described afterward. The sentence is built as a conditional clause establishing the factual basis for a legal judgment.

Key words

• 'e.Met ("truth", H0571H) — feminine singular noun functioning as a predicate nominative, asserting that "the matter" possesses the quality of being true.
• ha.Yah ("it was", H1961) — Qal perfect verb, third person, describing a completed state of affairs; it is the copula-like verb linking "the matter" to "truth."
• da.Var ("word/matter", H1697I) — masculine singular noun with the definite article ha (H9009), referring back to "this matter" as a specific, previously mentioned accusation.
• nim.tze.'U ("they were found", H4672) — Niphal perfect, third person plural; the passive voice indicates that no agent is specified — the virginities simply "were not found" rather than someone failing to find them.
• ve.tu.Lim ("virginities", H1331) — masculine plural noun, an unusual plural form for an abstract quality, suggesting physical signs or tokens of virginity rather than the abstract state itself.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve'im ("and if", H9002 + H0518A), introducing a conditional clause that continues the legal case begun in the preceding verses. The predicate structure "'emet hayah hadavar hazeh" places the noun 'emet ("truth") before the verb hayah ("it was"), a common Hebrew word order for nominal predicates, emphasizing the quality of truthfulness attributed to "this matter" (hadavar hazeh, H1697I + H2088).

The second half of the verse, joined by lo' ("not", H3808), states that ve.tu.Lim ("virginities", H1331) nim.tze.'U ("were not found", H4672) lanna'arah ("for the young woman", H9005 + H5291). The verb nim.tze.'U is in the Niphal (passive) stem, which removes the grammatical subject who might have searched or verified; the text simply reports the outcome — the signs were absent — without naming an examiner. The plural form of betulim ("virginities") is notable: rather than an abstract singular quality, the Hebrew uses a plural noun, which in Biblical Hebrew often denotes physical or evidentiary tokens associated with virginity.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders betulim ("virginities", H1331) as parthenia (a singular abstract noun, "virginity"), collapsing the Hebrew plural into a single conceptual term. The Vulgate similarly uses the singular virginitas ("virginity"), matching the LXX's abstraction rather than the Hebrew's plural form. Both the LXX and Vulgate use mē heurethē / non est inventa ("was not found", singular verb) to agree grammatically with their singular nouns, whereas the Hebrew nim.tze.'U is plural, agreeing with the plural betulim.