Dowry

The dowry (Hebrew môhar, more precisely the bride-price) in the biblical world was a payment made by the prospective groom or his family to the bride's father as part of the marriage transaction—distinct from the personal property a bride brought into the marriage and from gifts given to the family. It functioned as compensation for the loss of the daughter's labor and as an economic component of the covenant established between the two families. Exodus 22:17 prescribes the standard bride-price for a seduced virgin as the legal rate, even if the father refuses the marriage.

Jacob's fourteen years of labor for Laban constituted a bride-price paid in service rather than money (Gen. 29:18–20). Shechem offered any price as môhar and gift to secure Dinah (Gen. 34:12). The most unusual example is Saul's demand that David bring a hundred Philistine foreskins as his bride-price for Michal (1 Sam. 18:25)—a demand designed to result in David's death. The practice reflects the legal and economic framework within which marriage was arranged in ancient Israelite society.