326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



We need go no further than this, though many other changes 

 ensue; and we will now see what traces may be found in the 

 books of the Old Testament, to indicate that the Israelites passed 

 through these several phases. 



First, as to marriage by capture. We read in Genesis, xxxi, 

 26, that when Jacob had secretly made off with his wives and 

 flocks, Laban upon overtaking him asked, " What hast thou done, 

 that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my 

 daughters as captives taken with the sword ? " From which it is 

 evident that the practice of carrying off women by force was not 

 unknown. In Numbers, xxxi, we read that the Israelites, having 

 defeated Midian, saved thirty-two thousand virgins as booty. They 

 had at first spared all the women, as spoil, which shows that it 

 was quite usual to do so; but on this occasion Moses induced 

 them to murder all those who were not virgins. In Deuteronomy, 

 xx, 14, women are classed as spoil ; and in Deuteronomy, xxi, 

 11, 14, are the regulations to be observed in taking to wife a 

 woman captured in war. In the song of praise attributed to 

 Deborah and Barak, when exulting over the defeat and death of 

 Sisera, we find (Judges, v, 30) : " Have they not sped ? have they 

 not divided the prey : to every man a damsel or two ? " These 

 are all cases of capture de facto, and they show conclusively that 

 the Israelites captured women and took them to wife. That it 

 was also a common practice among the neighboring nations we 

 infer from I Samuel, xxx, 5, where David's two wives are carried 

 off by a raiding party of Amalekites. 



But, besides hostile captives, the Israelites had also marriage 

 with the form of capture — an important point, for it shows that 

 marriage by capture had formerly been the normal mode of ob- 

 taining a wife, and that the custom of ages had caused a sem- 

 blance of violence to be considered necessary, even in marriages 

 made by arrangement. The Old Testament phrase is to " take " a 

 wife, as for example Genesis, xxiv, 67 : " And Isaac brought her 

 into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became 

 his wife " ; Genesis, xxxviii, 2 : " And Judah saw there a daughter 

 of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took 

 her " ; Numbers, xii, 1 : " For he (Moses) had taken an Ethiopian 

 woman " ; Judges, xiv, 7, 8 : " And he went down and talked with 

 the woman, and she pleased Samson well, and after a time he re- 

 turned to take her"; Tobit, vii, 12, 13: "Then take her from 

 henceforth according to the manner"; and "Behold, take her 

 after the law of Moses." This " taking " was a form of capture. 

 Dr. Smith, in his Dictionary of the Bible, article " Marriage," re- 

 marks that " taking a wife " seems to be literally meant, and that 

 the "taking" was the chief ceremony in the constitution of a 

 marriage. In the case of Samson we read : " They brought thirty 



