Deuteronomy 22:28-29 (man seizes virgin) is best read as maximizing the woman's rights and removing the man's after a sexual violation; it reflects the law making the best of a sinful situation.

Mike reads both texts. In Deuteronomy 22:28-29, the man who has sex with an unbetrothed virgin must pay the bride price (50 shekels), marry her, and may never divorce her — the man loses his rights because he violated hers. Mike notes that in 2 Samuel 13, Tamar (after Amnon rapes her) protests being sent away because that compounds her harm — her culture gives weight to marriage as protection, and she would prefer marriage to abandonment. Mike uses this to illustrate that Deuteronomy protects the woman in a culture where unmarried non-virgin status was severely stigmatizing. He also uses Tamar's story to warn against "following the heart" leading to sin (Amnon's love-sickness culminating in rape and then hatred — mismanaged guilt), and connects the law's allowances to Jesus's statement in Matthew 19 that Moses permitted divorce "because of the hardness of your hearts." He frames the Deuteronomy law as contextually fitting, not morally ideal, but the best available protection for women given the sinfulness of men.