Verses 16-17
"And if a man entice a virgin that is not betrothed, and he lie with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins."
The Hebrew language has two words for virgin, "[~`almah], an espoused virgin, and [~bªthuwlah], a virgin who is not espoused."[9]; Isaiah 7:14 prophesied that, "A virgin ([~`almah]) shall conceive and bear a son, and will call his name Immanuel. By the choice of that word [~`almah], the prophet of God made it specific that The Son of God would be born to "an espoused virgin," which, of course, Mary indeed was!
This pronouncement has to do with virgins who were NOT espoused. The seduction of an espoused virgin was punishable by death (Deuteronomy 22:23f). Dummelow pointed out that:
"Among the Hebrews, and among the Arabs today, a woman who has been unchaste has almost no chance of marriage; thus, the seducer, it is here enacted, must marry her, or if the father object, make good the dowry.[10]
A number of scholars today reject the rendition "dowry" in Exodus 22:17, Unger, for example, stated that, "The seducer still had to pay the marriage price (not the dowry) of fifty shekels (Deuteronomy 22:28-29)."[11]
Be the first to react on this!
