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Knowledge concerning marriage in the fifth century BCE Judaeo-Aramaean community of Elephantine comes mainly from three long. They deal with many points, among them, the dissolution of marriage, which depends on the free will of both spouses. Each may utter a declaration of divorce before a court. In this declaration's formula, the verb employed is In' which means 'to hate'. In this context it can be asked whether we can translate it by 'to divorce' with a technical meaning and whether it is linked to an emotive context. The papyri add two rules concerning the dissolution of the marriage. Firstly the spouse who utters the declaration has to pay the ksp śn', 'money of hatred' and the spouses have to settle financial questions. Secondly the wife has to leave the matrimonial home. Thus although śn' usually means 'to hate', in this particular case it may also mean 'to wish to break an alliance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]