A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

1008    

a banquet, given by the girl’s father (Gen. 29:22). The groom took

the bride home to his tent (Gen. 24:67), room ( Judg. 15:1) or ̇uppah

( Josh. 2:16; Ps. 19:6). In the early days, in extraordinary circum-

stances, the bridegroom might live in his father-in-law’s household,

like Jacob with Laban. Much more commonly, the woman came to

her husband’s house within his father’s household cluster.

5.1.1.4 The Near Eastern custom of giving the bride-price to the

married daughter is the background of Rachel and Leah’s complaint

that their father ate up their bride-price (Gen. 31:14–16). Achsah

complains that her father gave her away as dry land. He then gave

her a field with springs as a marital gift ( Judg. 1:14–15).

5.1.1.5 Much more rarely, texts mention a dowry, “illu ̇im. Pharaoh

conquered Gezer and gave it to Solomon for his daughter (1 Kings

9:16); Micah tells Lachish to do the same for the king of Israel (Mic.

1:14). Laban gave his daughters maidservants as their dowry (Gen.

29:24, 29); Hagar, Sarai’s maid, may have come to her in the same

way. Comparison with Near Eastern texts indicates that dowries

would often contain ordinary household goods with which to set up

a household.^41

5.1.1.6 Two laws discuss the treatment of unfree women acquired

as wives in divergent ways.^42

a) The "amahof the Book of the Covenant (Exod. 21:7–10) is an

Israelite woman sold for this status by her father. If the buyer has

designated her for his son, she is treated like any other daughter-

in-law, becomes a wife, and is not freed in the seventh year. If the

man for whom she was acquired as a wife did not want her, he

could “redeem her” to another family but he could not sell her,

for his not marrying her was considered a betrayal. If he married

another woman, he had to keep providing for his "amah; if not, she

would go free. The debt for which her father may have sold her

is cancelled, but she would not get back any monetary payment to

her father, for it was not considered a bride-price. Deuteronomy

explicitly frees both male and female Hebrew slaves in the seventh

(^41) See Westbrook, Property and the Family.. ., 142–64. Westbrook points to second
millennium parallels to the sovereign king or group being the party to whom the
land is transferred and then given to the purchaser.
(^42) For female slaves and the captive bride, see most recently Pressler, “Wives and
Daughters.. .”; Washington, “ ‘Lest he die in Battle...’”; Westbrook, “Female Slave.”
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