Deuteronomy 22:13-24

If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her,

If any man take a wife ... The regulations that follow might be imperatively needful in the then situation of the Israelites; and yet it is not necessary that we should curiously and impertinently inquire into usages unknown to the language of civilization.

So far was it from being unworthy of God to leave such things upon record, that the enactments must heighten our admiration of His wisdom and goodness in the management of a people so perverse and so given to irregular passions. 'Nor is it a better argument that the Scriptures were not written by inspiration of God to object, that this passage, and others of a like nature, tend to corrupt the imagination, and will be abused by evil-disposed readers, than it is to say that the sun was not created by God, because its light may be abused by wicked men as an assistant in committing crimes which they have meditated' (Horne).

Niebuhr ('Voyage en Arabie') describes the same custom as still prevalent in many parts of that country, and he traces its origin to the idea that marriage being a sort of purchase, a man is entitled not only to look for a wife of a certain character and qualifications, but to return her to her father if she does not answer his expectations, accompanied by a demand for the restoration of the nuptial presents.

Verse 21. Out the damsel to the door of her father's house. If it had been proved that she had been formerly seduced, she was to suffer the penalty of death; and the place chosen for her execution was "the door of her father's house." The whole family were thus virtually involved in her punishment, because they were all bound to watch over her conduct, especially her father, in whose house she resided until her removal to that of her husband.