Coming for the Bride

GOING OF THE GROOM TO GET THE BRIDE Sometimes the bride's relations would conduct her from her father's house to the house of her fiancée, where her new home was to be. But more often, as was the case of the Ten Virgins in CHRIST's parable, the bridegroom himself went in person to bring her to his home for the wedding festivities to take place there. Before leaving the house that had been her home, she would receive the blessing of her relatives. Thus Rebekah's relatives sent her away with a typical Oriental marriage blessing, "Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them" (Genesis 24:60). The bride left her father's house adorned and perfumed, and with a crown on her head. Ezekiel's description of the bride is very appropriate) "I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head" (Ezekiel 16:11, 12). [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]