2. “If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated: Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn: But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.” - Deuteronomy 21:15-17
3. “Neither shall (a king) multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.” – Deuteronomy 17:17
4. “You shall not marry a woman and her daughter” - Leviticus 18:17a (AMP)
• The Father here is basically saying, “IF you are going to take another wife, don’t take your wife’s mother or daughter”
5. “You must not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive…” – Leviticus 18:18a (AMP)
Some of the Judges and Kings of Israel who were Polygamists (Note that some where evil and some were not and some we do not have much info on. Some of the evil ones were even chastised for their evil practices, but NONE of them were ever chastised by the Father for taking multiple wives):
1. Abdon (by implication)
• And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years. - Judges 12:14
• Not much was written about Abdon in the Bible
2. Abijah
• "But Abijah waxed mighty, and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons, and sixteen daughters." - 2 Chronicles 13:21
3. Ahab (1 Kings 20:3)
• Considered one of the most evil kings of Israel.
• Although the Scriptures mentions some of the evil deeds he did such as serving and worshipping Baal and taking Jezebel to wife, it never mentions the polygamist relations he was having as one of his wicked deeds
4. Gideon (Judges 8:30)
• To learn more about Gideon, read Judges 6-8
5. Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:15)
• 2 Kings 24:9 states that Jehoiachin did evil in the sight of the LORD. It does not say with specifics what this evil was, but reading it in context, the evil was likely surrendering Jerusalem to king Nebuchadnezzar.
6. David (Yes, THE king David)
David had at least 8 wives that are mentioned in the Scriptures
a. Michal (1 Sam 18:27)
b. Abigail (1 Sam 25:42)
c. Abinoam (1 Sam 25:43)
d. Maachah (1 Chronicles 3:2)
e. Haggith (1 Chronicles 3:2)
f. Abital (1 Chronicles 3:3)
g. Eglah (1 Chronicles 3:3)
h. Bathsheba (1 Chronicles 3:5)
God, through the prophet Nathan, said that He GAVE wives (plural) to David and if that wasn’t enough, he would have given him more!
“I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!“– 2 Sam 12:8 (NKJV)
If it was wrong to take multiple wives, then why would God GIVE multiple wives to David? David was a man after God’s own heart, I am sure if God just told him, “I’d rather you not have more than one wife” that David would have obeyed!
The Father said, “if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more”…more what?!? In context (with the 2 men with the lambs), it only makes since He is saying that He would have given him more wives.
I have heard people say that several of these people, such as king David, were sinning by taking another wife and then use phrases like, “God can use sinners (or ex sinners) to do great things” or “all have fallen short…”. While both of those statements are true, the big issue that these people who say phrases like that in this context are missing is that there is no record of these men ever repenting of such behavior. Most of these men were already men of God before they took the second wife or third wife. This wasn’t an “ooops, I did it again” either. If taking multiple wives was a sin (transgressing the law) then these men that the Bible refers to as righteous men were actually living in open rebellion to the King of kings. This would mean that the Bible could not refer to them as righteous people (if polygyny was transgressing the law).
There are clear verses of king David being very remorseful about the Bathsheba/Uriah matter. There are no verses of king David repenting or being remorseful about taking multiple wives and by looking at the verse below, it should be clear that king David was not in rebellion by taking multiple wives.
“because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” - 1 Kings 15:5
Some of the Other Big Names in the Scriptures who were Polygamists:
1. The Creator of the Universe and King of kings was married to sisters (Jeremiah 3:6-14)
2. Abraham (Gen 16:1-3; Gen 25:1)
3. Jacob (Gen 29:23 & 28; Gen 30:4 & 9)
4. Possibly Moses, Ezra, and Hosea (Each of these had two wives that are recorded in Scripture. Although, it can not be proven that these wives were married to them at the same time, it also can not be proven that they were not).
There are many other polygamists mentioned in the Scriptures. Again, some of those men seemed to be decent and some of those men were evil, but in none of the cases did the Father ever chastise any of those men for having multiple wives.
Other things to take note of:
1. The Messiah uses polygamy example in the parable about the 10 virgins waiting to meet the bridegroom in Matthew 25 and no where did he give a negative light on the polygamy issue.
2. If a brother marries and dies leaving his wife childless, it is the duty of the living brother to marry his deceased brother’s wife. No exemption was given to the live brother who already had a wife. (How motivated would the brother be if he knew he could have only one wife? He would be stuck with whoever his bother passed on to him, raising up his brother’s heirs.)
3. Leah, who was one of Jacob’s multiple wives, said,
“God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband”- Genesis 30:18.
The Pros of Polygamy; How it shows Love to a Nation, a Family, and Women
In the Genesis account, one wife was given to Adam. I do believe (without proof, so I could be wrong) that this is the ideal situation. Also, on average there is one man born to every one female born. In a perfect world, before Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, I would guess that there still would have been one man born for every one woman and no one would die. We don’t live in that perfect world though. Today, a war could come and wipe out half of the men (if men understood the high value and role of women, we would never send them to serve in the front lines in combat). Then, we would have 2 women for every man. These are some problems that would likely occur in a situation like this where men can not marry multiple wives:
1. The population would have sustained such a major blow, that they might not be strong enough for the next war. (If polygyny was allowed, in one generation the population would be at the same strength as if there had never been a war).
2. If the family of one man and one woman stayed intact, there would be half the women population that would not be able to marry. They would not likely experience childbirth and raising their own children. And in a patriarchal society, they would stay with their parents for life.
3. Since there would be half the women that basically had the choice of staying single and childless for life or finding a husband, many women would put their sights on married men and actually try and break up their family so that they could step in.
In God’s law, He commanded His people to kill every adult male of the enemy that went to war against Israel (Deuteronomy 20:13-14). He then told His people that they could take the enemies’ women for their own wives. (See Deuteronomy 21:10-14…take note that the next verse talks about having multiple wives). It would be torture for the women if God’s people went to war, killed all the males, took their lands and their cattle and their gold and anything of value, and then just told the women, “take your children and survive by yourselves”. Even if the women were super women and were able to find land, build another house, increase in gold and cattle all while likely taking care of a few small children with one on the breast, then it is likely another nation will see all of this new wealth free for the taking as no man was there to defend them. In all likelihood, if the Israelite men could not marry their enemies’ widows, then many of the women and children would have starved to death.
4. It helps to redistribute the wealth as the super rich men will likely have more wives and many more children to divide their wealth after their death.
5. The successful business men would likely have more wives and more children to train up while the poorer men will likely strive harder to better themselves so they might be found worthy to obtain a wife (ideally he would have a good bride price to pay the father of the bride) and have offspring and therefore creating less children in need and more women and children would be living in luxury.
6. It would have kept the value of the women high. Not only would the bride prices be higher, but the women would less likely be “cheapening” themselves by throwing themselves at men (I am not limiting the fault of sexual immorality to women).
Again, I have no desire to have multiple wives. If someone came to me for counsel on the matter, I would tell him over and over to be sure he is being led by the Spirit (I would actually tell someone this if they asked for my counsel on their first wife too). In the U.S.A, today, taking any wife can make a man's life great or make a man's life miserable (and a woman given to marriage to certain men can make a woman's life great or miserable too). If a man's life is great with a wife, I would remind him that if he is being led by the flesh and not the Spirit, the chances are very high that the bad will out weigh the good by taking another wife. For those that are being led by the Spirit to take another wife, click here for some tips.
