might be bought off from the service vowed.
The price for males from one month old to five
years, was five shekels, for females, three; from
five years old to twenty, for males, twenty shekels,
for females, ten; from twenty years old to sixty,
for males, fifty shekels, for females, thirty; above
sixty years old, for males, fifteen shekels, for females,
ten, Lev. xxvii. 2-8. What egregious folly to
contend that all these descriptions of persons were
goods and chattels because they were bought
and their prices regulated by law! 4. Bible
saints bought their wives. Boaz bought
Ruth. “Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the
wife of Mahlon, have I purchased (bought) to
be my wife.” Ruth iv. 10.[A] Hosea bought
his wife. “So I bought her to me
for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of
Barley, and an half homer of barley.” Hosea
iii. 2. Jacob bought his wives Rachael and Leah,
and not having money, paid for them in labor—seven
years a piece. Gen. xxix. 15-23. Moses probably
bought his wife in the same way, and paid for her
by his labor, as the servant of her father.[B] Exod.
ii. 21. Shechem, when negotiating with Jacob
and his sons for Dinah, says, “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 Michael, and Othniel, Achsah,
by performing perilous services for the fathers of
the damsels. 1 Sam. xviii. 25-27; Judg. i. 12, 13.
That the purchase of wives, either with money or by
service, was the general practice, is plain from such
passages as Ex. xxii. 17, and 1 Sam. xviii. 25.
Among the modern Jews this usage exists, though now
a mere form, there being no real purchase.
Yet among their marriage ceremonies, is one called
“marrying by the penny.” The similarity
in the methods of procuring wives and servants, in
the terms employed in describing the transactions,
and in the prices paid for each, are worthy of notice.
The highest price of wives (virgins) and servants
was the same. Comp. Deut, xxii. 28, 29, and
Ex. xxii. 17, with Lev. xxvii. 2-8. The medium
price of wives and servants was the same. Comp.
Hos. iii. 2, with Ex. xxi. 32. Hosea seems to
have paid one half in money and the other half in grain.
Further, the Israelitish female bought-servants were
wives, their husbands and masters being the
same persons. Ex. xxi. 8, Judg. xix. 3, 27.
If buying servants proves them property, buying
wives proves them property. 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? 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!
Refusing so to do, is questioning the morality of
those “good old slaveholders and patriarchs,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”