Context: On pgs. 278-280, a Guardian is convicted of rape and subsequently punished. Aunt Lydia says that the "'penalty for rape...is death. Deuteronomy 22:23-29...one woman was pregnant and the baby died'" (179).
Consistent with the other Biblical references in the novel, Deuteronomy 22:23-29 is conveniently condensed to serve the purpose Aunt Lydia wants it to serve. (see below) The convicted Guardian tries to say something, but all he can get out is "'I didn't...'" (279).

The bloodlust that ensues is alarming. Someone else blogged about the colors red and blue (I didn't read the full blog entry yet, so sorry if this repeats anything), and this passage definitely has a lot of red imagery in it. The women swarm forward like an angry red tide and proceed to viciously beat the man. This act of violence is easy to commit because they have dehumanized the Guardian; he's likened to a "half-dead rat" (279) and "He has become an it" (280). Ironically, the Handmaids have also become beasts. Offred admits that there is an urge to "tear, gouge, rend" (279), flare nostrils, and growl.

This incident reminded me a lot of Heart of Darkness: the Africans were thought of as animals; but in treating the Africans so cruelly, the white explorers dehumanized themselves.

If you guys were wondering what that section of Deuteronomy says, according to the Bible (www.bibleresources.bible.com, King James version): 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. 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.