1 Samuel 18:23

a poor man And therefore unable to offer the "dowry," or price such as it was usual for the suitor to pay to the father of the bride, either in money (Genesis 34:12) or in service (Genesis 29:20). The same custom prevailed among the ancient Greeks (Hom. Il.XVI. 178; Od. VIII. 318), Babylonians, and Assyrians, and still survives in the East. Tacitus notices it as a peculiarity of the Germans, that "it is not the wife who offers a dowry to her husband, but the husband to his wife" (Germ. c. 18).