What does the Bible say about sexual assault?

Genesis 39:6-12Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, and Potiphar’s wife soon began to look at him lustfully. “Come and sleep with me,” she demanded. But Joseph refused. . . . She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house.

Assault and rape sometimes begin with sexual harassment—unwanted sexual remarks, jokes, or physical advances. Even though the majority of sexual crimes are committed against women, men can experience harassment or assault as well. Joseph experienced verbal sexual harassment from his master’s wife, and in time, her advances became more physical.

Genesis 34:1-2One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the young women who lived in the area. But when the local prince, Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, saw Dinah, he seized her and raped her.

2 Samuel 13:11-14As she [Tamar] was feeding him [Amnon], he grabbed her and demanded, “Come to bed with me, my darling sister.” “No, my brother!” she cried. “Don’t be foolish! Don’t do this to me! Such wicked things aren’t done in Israel.” . . . But Amnon wouldn’t listen to her, and since he was stronger than she was, he raped her.

Sexual assault is a terrible trauma. Tamar’s reaction to Amnon raping her was to try to fight. Dinah’s trauma reaction isn’t explicit in the text. Perhaps she fought and cried for help but no one wanted to confront a local prince. Perhaps she froze in fear, unable to even speak as the unthinkable happened to her. Trauma can elicit deep, instinctive reactions we don’t fully understand.

Genesis 34:7-26Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the field as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious that their sister had been raped. . . . Simeon and Levi, who were Dinah’s full brothers, took their swords and entered the town without opposition. Then they slaughtered every male there, including Hamor and his son Shechem.

It is possible to experience secondary trauma from hearing about the trauma someone else went through—especially the trauma of someone we love. Simeon and Levi likely experienced secondary trauma when they heard their sister had been raped. Their “fight” reaction to trauma was very literal and violent.

Deuteronomy 22:22-27“If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the woman must die. In this way, you will purge Israel of such evil. Suppose a man meets a young woman, a virgin who is engaged to be married, and he has sexual intercourse with her. If this happens within a town, you must take both of them to the gates of that town and stone them to death. The woman is guilty because she did not scream for help. The man must die because he violated another man’s wife. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you. But if the man meets the engaged woman out in the country, and he rapes her, then only the man must die. Do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no crime worthy of death. She is as innocent as a murder victim. Since the man raped her out in the country, it must be assumed that she screamed, but there was no one to rescue her.”

Because of Israel’s high calling as God’s holy people set apart from the other nations, adultery was punished by death in ancient Israel. Both the man and the woman were executed. However, if a woman screamed for help, then the man was presumed guilty of rape, but the woman was presumed innocent. It is important to note that many victims freeze in fear while being raped, so some question a law that risks punishing an innocent woman for not screaming. This is a valid concern, and illustrates the inherent difficulties of enforcing moral laws on sinful humans with limited evidence available. Every law enforced by imperfect humans with imperfect evidence carries risk of injustice. With that said, it is significant that if a man and woman had illicit sex in the country (far from people who might hear the woman scream), the woman was always given the benefit of the doubt. It was assumed that the man had raped her and that the woman was innocent. Rather than shaming a woman who is raped, Scripture goes so far as to say that “she is as innocent as a murder victim.” In other words, Scripture affirms that rape is never the victim’s fault, and in every case, the rapist is condemned.