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making the first-born of his favored wife his first-born; instead, it
demands that the first to be born be made the first-born (Deut.
21:15–17).
(b) Giving the daughter in marriage. Deuteronomy requires a man to
allow his daughter’s seducer to pay the bride-price and marry her
(Deut. 22:28–29). By contrast, Exodus allowed a father to accept
the bride-price and refuse the girl (Exod. 22:16; see 8.3.2–8.3.3
below).
(c) Life or death of son. Parents could no longer decree death for the
child. Parents could denounce a totally recalcitrant, uncontrollable
and disgraceful son before the elders and the elders would have
the son stoned (Deut. 21:18–21).5.2.3 Parents and children were not to be executed for each other’s
misdeeds (Deut. 24:16). The rule is cited by the Deuteronomic his-
torian when King Amaziah slew the men who had killed his father
but not their sons, “as it is written in the book of the law of Moses”
(2 Kings 14:6).5.2.3.1 The Book of Joshua records an early exception to this rule:
Achan, convicted of violating the ̇eremat Jericho, was stoned and
then burnt together with his sons and daughters and his oxen and
asses ( Josh. 7:24–25). The reason is the nature of ̇erem: the pres-
ence of a ̇eremobject turned the whole household into a ̇erem. They
were stoned for violation of the ̇eremand were then burned to get
rid of all traces of ̇eremcontamination.5.2.3.2 The right to kill children for parental misdeeds is reserved
to God, who is said to punish till the third or fourth generation
(Exod. 20:5).5.2.4 Birth
5.2.4.1 Surrogacy
As elsewhere in the ancient Near East, Israel knew of a custom in
which a childless woman gave her husband a slave to conceive a
child. One case, Hagar, did not work well, and the child was con-
sidered Hagar’s rather than Sarai’s (Gen. 16). In the other two cases,
Bilhah the slave of Rachel and Zilpah the slave of Leah (Gen. 30:5,
8, 13) the child was both the slave’s and the slave owner’s.^50(^50) Frymer-Kensky, “Patriarchal Family Relationships...”
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