Exodus 22:16

Summary

The verse addresses a case in which a man persuades a virgin who has not been formally betrothed to have sexual relations with him. The legal consequence stated is that he must pay the bride-price for her and take her as wife.

Key words

• yefatteh ("he will seduce", H6601B) — piel imperfect, a verb form denoting intensive or repeated action; here it describes the act of persuading/enticing, not merely a single simple act (as a qal would).
• betulah ("a virgin", H1330) — feminine singular noun identifying the legal status of the woman prior to the act described.
• orasah ("she was betrothed", H781) — pual perfect (passive, intensive), completed action expressed passively: the negation lo ("not", H3808) before it establishes that she was not in a state of betrothal, which is the condition that defines this case as distinct from other laws involving betrothed women.
• mahor yimharennah ("certainly he will pay the bride-price for her", H4117 + H4117) — the infinitive absolute mahor paired with the imperfect yimharennah of the same root; this doubling construction intensifies or makes emphatic the obligation to pay the bride-price.
• le'ishah ("to a wife", H802H) — the noun "wife" preceded by the preposition le ("to", H9005), marking the purpose/result of the payment: she is taken as wife.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conditional particle khi ("if", H3588A), introducing a case-law structure typical of this section of Exodus. The subject is ish ("a man", H376G), and the verb yefatteh is in the piel stem, an intensive form that here conveys persuasion or enticement rather than force — the text does not use a verb of violence. The object is betulah ("a virgin", H1330), further specified by the relative clause asher lo orasah ("who was not betrothed"), using the pual (passive intensive) perfect of H781 to state her prior unbetrothed status as completed fact.

The narrative continues with the vav-consecutive verb shakhav ("he will lie", H7901I) in the qal, connecting the seduction to the sexual act "with her" (immah, H5973A + H9034 suffix). The legal consequence is expressed through the infinitive absolute construction mahor yimharennah — the same root (H4117, "to pay the bride-price") repeated first as an infinitive absolute and then as an imperfect verb, a Hebrew grammatical device that adds emphasis to the obligation, often rendered in translation as "he shall surely pay" or "he must pay." The clause concludes with lo ("for himself", H9033 suffix) and le'ishah ("to be a wife", H802H), indicating the woman becomes his wife as an outcome of the payment.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yefatteh with ἀπατήσῃ ("deceive"), which carries a nuance of deception rather than the broader "persuade/entice" sense of the piel of patah (H6601B). The Vulgate uses seduxerit ("shall have seduced"), closer in force to the Hebrew's piel intensive. The LXX and Vulgate both preserve the doubled/intensified payment obligation (φερνῇ φερνιεῖ; dotabit), corresponding to the Hebrew infinitive absolute construction mahor yimharennah.