thy husband, and he shall rule over thee;" and the verse also
undergoes the variation: "the woman shall leave father and mother, and
cleave to her husband." In point of fact, however, I Moses, 2, 24, has
it this way: "_Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and
shall cleave unto his wife_, and they shall be one flesh." The same
language recurs in Matthew 19, 15; Mark 10, 7, and in the Epistle to the
Ephesians 5, 31. The command sprang, accordingly, from the system of
descent in the female line, and the exegetists, at a loss what to do
with it, allowed it to appear in a light that is utterly false.

Descent in female line appears clearly also in IV Moses, 32, 41. It is
there said that Jair had a father, who was of the tribe of Judah, but
his mother was of the tribe of Manasseh, and Jair is expressly called
the son of Manasseh, and he inherited in that tribe. Another instance of
descent in the female line among the Jews is met in Nehemiah 7, 63.
There the children of a priest, who took to wife one of the daughters of
Barzillai--a Jewish clan--are called children of Barzillai; they are,
accordingly, not called after the father, who, moreover, as a priest
occupied a privileged position, but after the mother. For the rest,
already in the days of the Old Testament, accordingly, in historic
times, the father-right prevailed among the Jews, and the clan and tribe
organization rested on descent in the male line. Accordingly, the
daughters were shut off as heirs, as may be seen in I Moses 31, 14-15,
where even Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban, complain: "Is there
yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not
counted of him strangers? for he has sold us, and hath quite devoured
also our money."

As happened with all peoples where descent in male replaced descent in
female line, woman among the Jews stood wholly bereft of rights. Wedlock
was marriage by purchase. On woman the obligation was laid of the
strictest chastity; on the other hand, man was not bound by the same
ordinance; he, moreover, was privileged to possess several wives. Did
the husband, after the bridal night, believe to have found that his wife
had, before marriage, lost her maidenhood, not only had he the right to
cast her off, she was stoned to death. The same punishment fell upon the
adultress; upon the husband, however, only in case he committed adultery
with a married Jewish woman. According to V Moses 24, 1-4, the h