Women and Property Rights – Protection of Women (4:20 – 4:21)

Protection for Women

4:20 If you wish to marry another wife, in place of your present wife, and you had given any of them a great deal, you shall not take back anything you had given her. Would you take it fraudulently, maliciously, and sinfully?

4:21 How could you take it back, after you have been intimate with each other, and they had taken from you a solemn pledge?

What does “solemn pledge” mean?

Solemn: very serious or formal in expression

Pledge: serious promise

The solemn pledge is the commitment that their intentions is to stay together for ever. This may not actually happen, but their intentions need to be for that sake, and not with the expectation that this is a temporary marriage.