2
wives. But this was not the only payment on marriage. The bride’s
father gave her on her wedding a large present of clothing, furniture, and
cash. This was called the dowry. Leah and Rachel’s dowries each
included a slave girl.
Total fidelity was demanded of the wife in marriage. If she was caught
with another man, both could be put to death. But note the husband was
not so tightly bound: if he had an affair with a single woman, that was not
adultery, though it could prove expensive. This double standard on
adultery went along with a tolerance of polygamy but not polyandry.
Divorce would be another possibility, especially where the evidence was
not clear cut. In this case the woman would forfeit her dowry and
probably return in disgrace to her parental home. But in other situations
divorce would cost the husband dear. If for example he divorced his wife
because she was childless, he would have to give her the dowry and a
divorce settlement equal to the marriage present (10 to 30 shekels).
In cases of misbehaviour short of adultery no divorce settlement was
payable but the woman still took her dowry with her. This in itself was a
huge disincentive to divorce. A survey of Palestinian villagers in 1930s
showed a very low divorce rate (< 5%), because although it is technically
very easy to divorce under Islamic law, the divorced wife took the dowry
with her. And that deterred most husbands from resorting to divorce.
These practices probably lie behind the only law on divorce in the OT.
Deut. 24:1-4 (ESV)
"When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in
his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a
certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his
house, and she departs out of his house, [2] and if she goes and becomes
another man's wife, [3] and the latter man hates her and writes her a
certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his
house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, [4] then her
former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his
wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the
Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is
giving you for an inheritance.
According to Raymond Westbrook there are two kinds of divorce here.
The first case involves sexual misbehaviour, short of adultery, which
entitles the first husband to divorce her and keep the dowry. She then
remarries, bringing with her a second dowry. Her second husband then
takes a dislike to her, ‘hates’ her, in other word has no justification for
divorcing her. So if he divorces her, she keeps her dowry. The same