Exodus 22:16 - Exposition

If a man entice . Rather "seduce." He shall surely endow her to be his wife . In the East a man commonly pays money, or money's worth, to the parents in order to obtain a wife. The seducer was to comply with this custom, and make over to the damsel's father the sum of fifty shekels of silver ( Deuteronomy 22:29 ), for his sanction of the marriage. If the father consented, he was compelled to marry the girl, and he was forbidden to repudiate her afterwards ( ibid. ).