DOWRY (dou-rD, (Hch. m,'har, price paid for a wife, Gcn. XXX/V:12; F.xod. xxii:17; Sam. xviii:25; 7„eh'hed, a gift, Gen. xxx:2o).
In the East the bridegroom offers to the father of his bride a sum of money, or value to his satisfaction, before he can expect to receive his daughter in marriage. Of this procedure we have instances from the earliest times. (1) When Jacob had nothing which he could immediately give for a wife, he purchased her by his services to her father Laban (Gen. xxix :18). So we find Shechem offers to pay any value, as a dowry for Dinah (Gen. xxxiv;i2). In this pas sage is mentioned. a distinction still observed in the East : (a) "A dowry" to the family, as a token of honor, to engage their favorable interest in the desired alliance; (b) "a gift" to the bride herself, c. g., of jewels and other decorations, a compliment of honor, as Abraham's servant gave to Rebekah. (2) We find king Saul (I Sam. xviii:25) instead of wishing for a pecuniary dowry from David, which David was sensible he could not pay in proportion to the value of the bride, required one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, thereby proposing his daughter in re ward of valor, as Caleb had formerly done his daughter Achsah to whoever should take Kirjath sepher ; that is, he gave her as a reward of honor, without receiving the accustomed doss ry (Josh xv :16). (3) The dowry was esteemed so essen
tial, that 'Moses even orders it in a ease where it might otherwise, perhaps, have been dispensed with; "If a man entice a maid, that is not be trothed, he shall endow her to be his wife" (Exod xxii :16) ; he shall make her the usual nuptial present ; according to the rank which he holds in the world, and to that station which his wife might justly be expected to maintain: propor tionate, also, to that honor which he would have put upon her, had he regularly solicited her fam ily for her ; that is, jewels and other trinkets. "If her father refuse his daughter," he shall pay money, "according to the dowry of virgins ;" that is, what the father of a virgin of that rank of life might justly expect should have been offered for his daughter when solicited in marriage. And this we find was the proposal made by Shechcm, in reparation of the injury done to Dinah.