361. Marriage of Slave to Master’s Daughter

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1 Chronicles 2:34-3534Now Sheshan had no sons, but daughters. And Sheshan had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Jarha. 35And Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant to wife; and she bare him Attai. (1 Chronicles 2:34‑35). Now Sheshan had no sons, but daughters. And Sheehan had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Jarha. And Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant to wife.
According to the Mosaic law, daughters were not to be married out of the tribe to which they belonged. This was commanded in order to keep the inheritance of each tribe to itself. See Numbers 36. In the text, Sheshan, who had no sons, is represented as marrying his daughter to an Egyptian, and that Egyptian a servant. Harmer states that though this may have been contrary to the law of Moses, it was in accordance with a custom frequently practiced in the East. He quotes from one of Maitlet’s letters, in which an account is given of one Hassan, who had been a slave to Kernel, the “Kiaia of the Asaphs of Cairo, that is, colonel of four or five thousand men who go under that name.” “Kamel,” says Maillot, “according to the custom of the country, gave him one of his daughters in marriage, and left him at his death one part of the great riches he had amassed together in the course of a long and prosperous life.” He also succeeded his master in his office (Observations, vol. 4, p. 298).