Exodus 22:16-17

Next we have a case of seduction. Here the girl is viewed as the property of her father. If a young couple had premarital sex, the young man had to marry the young woman and give his father-in-law the customary payment (i.e., a dowry) to do so. The girl’s father could refuse this offer, however, in which case the boy would not get the girl but would still have to pay the dowry. This law pertained to situations in which seduction (persuasion), not rape, had resulted in intercourse. Other Torah passages that indicate that premarital sex is sinful include Genesis 2:24 and Deuteronomy 22:13-29. Moses did not comment on other similar situations here. Israel was evidently to function in harmony with previously existing law in these cases. [Note: Cassuto, pp. 288-89.]

"As many scholars recognize, the second half of the Book of the Covenant begins at Exodus 22:18 and the stipulations undergo a change in content to match what is clearly a change in form. The first half (Exodus 20:22 to Exodus 22:17) is fundamentally casuistic, whereas the latter half is not. [Note: Childs, p. 477.] That is, the stipulations now are expressed as prescriptions or prohibitions with little or no reference to the penalty attached to violation in each case." [Note: Merrill, "A Theology . . .," p. 44.]