Proved the bachelor could provide (iirc in Israel they were about 7 years' cumulative wages) as well as compensating the bride's father for having one less person to help around the house. Reason being is a married man has a better idea of what a good spouse would be like, and being a dad, they aren't likely to put their kid in a miserable situation on purpose.īride prices served two purposes, practically speaking. Of course, if the bachelor was established and his own parents were out of the picture, he could just ask himself, but this probably was seen as shadier compared to speaking to the patriarch. Alternatively, a bachelor could let his parents know he was fond of a maiden and ask his father to get her information for him. There isn't an explicit "this is the only way" but the cultural norm which seemed to work really well for millennia, going by Scripture, was that the father of a bachelor would inquire of a father of a maiden and they would discuss compatibility.