What does the Torah say about rape victims and their rapists?

What does the Torah say about rape victims and their rapists?

The answer is in Deuteronomy 22: 25-29

There are two cases given. The first clearly condemns the rapist to death, no question, and the rape victim is to be protected.

The second case is a little less clear. Some translations have interpreted the scene to be the rape of an betrothed woman (the first one being a betrothed woman). This is actually a pretty difficult case to make. The first instance uses a word that implies force (Chas). The second instance uses the words for take (tap has) and lie down (Shaka). The second word obviously implies the sexual act. The debate is whether the first word (tap has) implies a forceful taking, and thus rape, in the same way that the previous instance uses the word comp ell/force (Chas). It seems unlikely this is the case for a few reasons. 1) It is unlikely that an betroththeean would be out alone or far from her family (where she could scream and the rapist would immediately be killed). 2) The word for take (taphas) does not imply force in any sense. In fact it is often used in other contexts for a simple act of bringing something to ones self. 3) The language of "if they are discovered" seems to imply that it is being kept a secret (obviously nothing could be adressed unless it was known about). It seems pretty unlikely that a rape would be held in secret, especially given the strikingly stiff penalty for being discovered not to be a virgin on the wedding night (the man can ask for an anulment, no questions asked). In all likelihood, the second scenario is simply giving the case law for when two people are found to be having sex who are not married. If the girl is not already engaged to be married (betrothed) then the two just became married. What is really at work in this second scenario is the notion that one cannot really seperate sex and marriage, there is too much intimacy involved in marriage to entertain the concept of sleeping with another to determine "sexual compatibility" before marriage or the idea of "living together" w/o being married. Ceremony aside, the important issue is the level of intimacy. So, sorry if you thought the answer was that the woman has to marry her rapist (that is never the case), as many oponents of the Hebrew Scirptures alledge, that simply is not the case.

The victim is held completely blames less and the rapist has to pay a fifty shekel fine to her father AND he has to pay her the following:
1) damages for any pain inflicted
2) damages for any wounds inflicted
3) any lost income
4) damages for embarrassment caused

IF she want s it, the rapist has to marry the victim but is essentially an indentured servant as he has no rights whatsoever. He cannot divorce her, he has to support her fully including clothing, housing, food, jewelery etc, he has no rights to sleep with her as it is purely a woman's choice and she can refuse him - the general remedy for a husband whose wife refuses to sleep with him is that he would divorce her (in this case the rapist is not allowed to divorce her but ends up supporting her for nothing in return), generally a husband has a right to the wife's earnings IF he is supporting her- a rapist has no rights to his wife's earnings AND HAS TO support her! Furthermore, if she meets somebody she would marry, she can force him to divorce her so she can marry the other person. In addition to the divorce, the rapist had to pay her 200 shekels as a divorce settlement! In short- the rapist essentially ends up as the slave of the woman required to meet all her needs with zero right of his own!

I was too lazy so I am giving you what he wrote. This is basically the story.

rapist should be ashamed of their selves and the hopefully the rape victims be OK