Neville Goddard on Deuteronomy 22:13-29 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Deuteronomy 22 in context

Scripture Focus

13If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her,

14And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid:

15Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate:

16And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her;

17And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.

18And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;

19And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.

20But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:

21Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.

22If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.

23If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;

24Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.

25But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:

26But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:

27For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.

28If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;

29Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.

Deuteronomy 22:13-29

Biblical Context

Deuteronomy 22:13-29 describes how a husband’s accusation triggers tests of virginity and penalties, shaping the fate of a marriage in ancient Israel. The text also outlines several scenarios that regulate sexual conduct and aim to purge impurity from the community.

Neville's Inner Vision

Viewed through the Neville lens, this text is not a statute about others but a drama played out inside your own consciousness. The 'tokens of virginity' symbolize the signs you demand of your inner life before you deem it clean; the elders at the gate are the inner tribunal of imagination that weighs your beliefs. When the husband says, 'I found not thy daughter a maid,' he exposes how you may project a story of lack or imperfection onto your life. The punishment and the stones are the natural results of living from fear rather than from faith, of treating appearances as the ultimate court. Yet the real instruction is interior: to purify the mind by revision, to declare your I AM as the sole owner of reality, and to refuse to let a false image govern you. If you would 'put evil away from among you,' you do so by changing your assumption about who you are—seeing yourself as the pure, beloved expression of God, already married to your highest idea. The external scene becomes a faithful mirror of your inner alignment when you dwell in the consciousness that you are I AM, and all is well within you.

Practice This Now

Imaginative Act: Assume the state of the I AM and revise any belief of flaw by affirming, 'I am pure, I am loved, I am the I AM.' Feel it real by closing your eyes, breathing deeply, and imagining the inner elders presenting tokens of virtue that confirm your wholeness.