In the Law of Moses, Deuteronomy 22:22-29 describes statutes for what to do if:

• A man seduces a married woman.
• A man rapes a married woman.
• A man seduces an unmarried woman.

Note that for the last case, verses 28-29 do not contain the Hebrew word for “force,” ḥāzaq, that implies rape in this context. The word translated “seize” in the NKJV, tāp̄aś, implies taking hold of something, but does not imply violent force here. Therefore, the law is not requiring that a woman marry her rapist.

What’s clearly missing from the list is what to do if a man rapes an unmarried woman. I believe the reason why is the same reason that so many men nowadays are being accused of sexual assault by women they believed they had consensual encounters with: the line between seduction and rape is very hard to define (much less defend) in the absence of witnesses.

This served to the benefit of women. Consider: if an Israelite man seduced an unmarried woman and was caught, he had to hope he could win over both the woman and her father and/or brothers to his side. If the father and/or brothers considered him a deadbeat, or the woman didn’t care for him anymore, either the father and/or brothers or the woman (with the father’s and/or brothers’ cooperation) could decide to claim the man raped her. If that happened, I believe there were pre-existing legal norms that would allow the father and/or brothers of the woman to kill the man, per what is seen in Genesis 34 (Simeon and Levi’s sin was not their attempt to avenge their sister, but rather using the pretense of a peace-making covenant as a deceptive means to murder not only the man who seduced their sister, but all the men of their city).

So, yes, if a woman’s family decided that the man who slept with her was “a good kid” and would make a decent husband, and the man and woman “had just gotten carried away,” the man’s punishment was only to marry her (and he could never divorce her, because he did treat her inappropriately). But every man considering seducing an unmarried woman was supposed to live in fear that her family might not take this perspective, and then his life would be in danger. It would cause men to think twice about doing things the dishonorable way.