If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife. Sexual ethics are addressed in the legal code as a matter of covenant community integrity. The seduction of an unmarried, unengaged woman creates an obligation: the man has taken the bride without paying for her. The bride-price represents the economic and covenantal transfer of the woman from her father's household to the man's. The law requires the man to complete what he has already begun — not only the sexual act but the covenant of marriage. The obligation is not to the woman alone but to the family structure that has been disrupted by the act.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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