virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found, then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty _shekels_ of silver, and she shall be his wife: * * * he may not put her away all his days.” _Deut._ xxii. 13–25, 28, 29. “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even unto his tenth generation.” _Idem_, xxiii. 2. “These are the statutes which the Lord commanded Moses between a man and his wife, between the father and his daughter, _being yet_ in her youth in her father’s house.” _Num._ xxx. 16. “When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, * * * and shalt say, I will set a king over me,” &c. * * * “But he shall not,” &c. * * * “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away.” _Deut._ xvii. 14–17. The inferences to be drawn from a review of these statutes, in opposition to polygamy, we deem of easy deduction. We leave them for the consideration of those who shall examine the subject. We deem it extraordinary that, “at this age of the world,” we should find men who seem to think that because Moses had a statute which, under certain circumstances, authorized husbands to divorce their wives, that thereby he permitted polygamy. “When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some _uncleanness_ in her,” (it is the same word elsewhere translated _nakedness_,) “then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; her former husband which sent her away may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for this is abomination before the Lord.” _Deut._ xxiv. 1–4. Is there any thing here that favours polygamy? Such was the law. But in the original, there is a term used which became the subject of discussion among the Jews, perhaps shortly after its promulgation. This term, in our translation “uncleanness,” some understand to mean such moral or physical defects as rendered her marriage highly improper or a nullity; others understand it to mean, or rather to extend to and embrace, all dislike on the part of the husband whereby he became desirous to be separated from her.