and not having money, paid for them in labor—seven
years a piece. Gen. xxix. 15-29. Moses probably
bought his wife in the same way, and paid for her
by his labor, as the servant of her father. Exod.
ii. 21. Shechem, when negotiating with Jacob
and his sons for Dinah, says, “What ye shall
say unto me, I will give. Ask me never
so much dowry and gift, and I will give according
as ye shall say unto me.” Gen. xxxiv. 11,
12. David purchased Michal, Saul’s daughter,
and Othniel, Achsab, the daughter of Caleb, by performing
perilous services for the benefit of their fathers-in-law.
1 Sam. xviii. 25-27; Judges i. 12, 13. That the
purchase of wives, either with money or by service
was the general practice, is plain from such passages
as Exod. xxii. 17, and 1 Sam. xviii. 25. Among
the Jews of the present day this usage exists, though
it is now a mere form, there being no real
purchase. Yet among their marriage ceremonies,
is one called “marrying by the penny.”
The coincidences, not only in the methods of procuring
wives and servants, and in the terms employed in describing
the transactions, but in the prices paid for each,
are worthy of notice. The highest price of wives
(virgins) and servants was the same. Compare
Deut. xxii. 28, 29, and Exod. xxii. 17, with Lev.
xxvii. 2-8. The medium price of wives and
servants was the same. Compare Hosea iii. 2,
with Exod. xxi. 2. Hosea appears to have paid
one half in money and the other in grain. Further,
the Israelitish female bought-servants were wives,
their husbands and their masters being the same persons.
Exod. xxi. 8, and Judges xix. 3, 27. If buying
servants among the Jews shows that they were property,
then buying wives shows that they were
property. The words in the original used to describe
the one, describe the other. Why not contend that
the wives of the ancient fathers of the faithful were
their chattels, and used as ready change at a pinch?
And thence deduce the rights of modern husbands.
How far gone is the Church from primitive purity!
How slow to emulate illustrious examples! Alas!
Patriarchs and prophets are followed afar off!
When will pious husbands live up to their Bible privileges,
and become partakers with Old Testament worthies in
the blessedness of a husband’s rightful immunities!
Surely professors of religion now, are bound
to buy and hold their wives as property! Refusing
so to do, is to question the morality of those “good
old” wife-trading “patriarchs, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob,” with the prophets, and a host
of whom the world was not worthy.
The use of the word buy, to describe the procuring of wives, is not peculiar to the Hebrew. In the Syriac language, the common expression for “the married,” or “the espoused,” is “the bought.” Even so late as the 16th century, the common record of marriages in the old German Chronicles was “A. BOUGHT B.”