Discovery BoxGenesis 29:18
Context29:18 Since Jacob had fallen in love with 1 Rachel, he said, “I’ll serve you seven years in exchange for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Genesis 34:12
Context34:12 You can make the bride price and the gift I must bring very expensive, 2 and I’ll give 3 whatever you ask 4 of me. Just give me the young woman as my wife!”
Exodus 22:16-17
Context22:16 5 “If a man seduces a virgin 6 who is not engaged 7 and has sexual relations with her, he must surely endow 8 her to be his wife. 22:17 If her father refuses to give her to him, he must pay money for the bride price of virgins.
[29:18] 1 tn Heb “Jacob loved.”
[34:12] 2 tn Heb “Make very great upon me the bride price and gift.” The imperatives are used in a rhetorical manner. Shechem’s point is that he will pay the price, no matter how expensive it might be.
[34:12] 3 tn The cohortative expresses Shechem’s resolve to have Dinah as his wife.
[22:16] 5 sn The second half of the chapter records various laws of purity and justice. Any of them could be treated in an expository way, but in the present array they offer a survey of God’s righteous standards: Maintain the sanctity of marriage (16-17); maintain the purity of religious institutions (18-20), maintain the rights of human beings (21-28), maintain the rights of Yahweh (29-31).
[22:16] 6 tn This is the word בְּתוּלָה (bÿtulah); it describes a young woman who is not married or a young woman engaged to be married; in any case, she is presumed to be a virgin.
[22:16] 7 tn Or “pledged” for marriage.
[22:16] 8 tn The verb מָהַר (mahar) means “pay the marriage price,” and the related noun is the bride price. B. Jacob says this was a proposal gift and not a purchase price (Exodus, 700). This is the price paid to her parents, which allowed for provision should there be a divorce. The amount was usually agreed on by the two families, but the price was higher for a pure bride from a noble family. Here, the one who seduces her must pay it, regardless of whether he marries her or not.
