⁵ To be put on the list with Mary, his future wife, who was about to become a mother.

²² If a man is taken in the act of going in to a married woman, the two of them, the man as well as the woman, are to be put to death: so you are to put away the evil from Israel.

²³ If a young virgin has given her word to be married to a man, and another man meeting her in the town, has connection with her;

²⁴ Then you are to take the two of them to the doorway of the town, and have them stoned to death; the young virgin, because she gave no cry for help, though it was in the town, and the man, because he has put shame on his neighbour's wife: so you are to put away evil from among you.

²⁵ But if the man, meeting such a virgin in the open country, takes her by force, then only the man is to be put to death;

²⁶ Nothing is to be done to the virgin, because there is no cause of death in her: it is the same as if a man made an attack on his neighbour and put him to death:

²⁷ For he came across her in the open country, and there was no one to come to the help of the virgin in answer to her cry.

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: when his mother Mary was going to be married to Joseph, before they came together the discovery was made that she was with child by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁹ And Joseph, her husband, being an upright man, and not desiring to make her a public example, had a mind to put her away privately.