Deuteronomy 22:27

Summary

The verse gives the legal justification for the case just described: because the young betrothed woman was found in open country, she cried out for help, but no one was present to rescue her. The clause functions as a causal explanation (ki, "that/because") for the preceding ruling.

Key words

• ki ("that", H3588A) — subordinating/conditional particle introducing the reason clause; here functioning causally ("because," "for").
• sadeh ("open country", H7704G) — masculine singular noun with preposition and article (va-sadeh), marking the location as away from town, i.e., a place where no one could hear her.
• metza'ah ("he found her", H4672) — qal perfect, third person, with pronominal suffix "her" (H9034); a completed act preceding the outcry.
• tza'aqah ("she cried for help", H6817) — qal perfect, third person feminine; a completed act of crying out, distinct from the more general verb for calling.
• me'orasah ("betrothed", H0781) — pual passive participle feminine singular, describing the na'arah ("young woman", H5291) as one who has been betrothed by another's action — passive voice underlines that the betrothal was done to her, not by her.
• mo.shia' ("a deliverer", H3467) — hiphil participle, "one who causes to be saved"; combined with 'ein ("not", H0369, in construct) it forms the existential negation "there was no deliverer."

What the text says

The sentence is built as a causal clause introduced by ki, followed by two consecutive qal perfect verbs — metza'ah ("he found her") and tza'aqah ("she cried out") — placed in narrative sequence: the finding precedes the crying out. The subject of the second verb, na'arah ha-me'orasah ("the betrothed young woman"), is stated afterward, with both the noun and its participial modifier marked by the definite article, tying them together as a single defined referent already known from the preceding verses. The final clause, ve-'ein moshia' lah, uses the existential negator 'ein in construct with the hiphil participle moshia' ("one who saves"), producing the fixed idiom "there was no one to save her," with lah ("to/for her") indicating the beneficiary who lacked rescue.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the opening as "Sola erat in agro" ("she was alone in the field"), an addition not present in the Hebrew, which states only va-sadeh metza'ah ("in the open country he found her"). The LXX follows the Hebrew more closely with εὗρεν αὐτήν ("he found her") and ἐβόησεν ("she cried out"), preserving the same two-verb sequence.