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Polygamy
The teaching of Genesis 1–3 that monogamy is a foundational part of God’s design for marriage notwithstanding, the history of Israel witnesses repeated instances of polygamy.32 While it certainly was within the Creator’s prerogative and power to make more than one wife for the man, God intentionally only made Eve, revealing to Adam his plan with the words, “A man [singular] shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife [singular], and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).
Indeed, one could argue that from a practical standpoint, perhaps God, especially in anticipation of the fall of humanity and the universal death that would ensue, should have provided the man with two or more wives. For what would have happened if Eve had died before having children, or had died in childbirth? Would the human race have perished? If God desired for the earth to be populated (Gen. 1:28), does not logic dictate that this could occur faster if Adam were provided with more than one or perhaps even a large number of wives? Yet, in spite of practical arguments such as these in favor of having more than one wife, the Creator’s design is simple and clear: one woman for one man. This is the law of marriage established at Creation.
As could be expected, though, after the fall of humanity, God’s ideal of monogamy was not consistently upheld.34 Within six generations, barely after Adam had died, the Bible records that “Lamech took two wives” (Gen. 4:19), perhaps in his presumption seeking to obtain God’s primeval blessing (cf. Gen. 1:28) by relying on his own devices—multiplying his wives. While polygamy was never normative among the followers of Israel’s God, Scripture reveals that it was indeed a recurrent event.35 In fact, the Old Testament reports that a significant number of individuals in the history of Israel, including many patriarchs and kings, practiced polygamy (or, more precisely, polygyny, marriage to multiple wives), though no instance of polyandry (a wife having more than one husband) is reported. In addition to Lamech, individuals who engaged in polygamy include prominent men such as Abraham (Gen. 16:3), Esau (Gen. 26:34; 28:9), Jacob (Gen. 29:30), Gideon (Judg. 8:30), Elkanah (1 Sam. 1:1-2), David (2 Sam. 3:2-5; 5:13), Solomon (1 Kings 11:3), Ahab (2 Kings 10:1), Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:15), Ashhur (1 Chron. 4:5), Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11:21), Abijah (2 Chron. 13:21), Jehoram (2 Chron. 21:14), and Joash (2 Chron. 24:1-3).
While it is evident, then, that some very important individuals (both reportedly godly and ungodly) in the history of Israel engaged in polygamy, the Old Testament clearly communicates that the practice of having multiple wives was a departure from God’s plan for marriage. This is conveyed not only in Scripture verses that seem univocally to prohibit polygamy (cf. Deut. 17:17; Lev. 18:18),37 but also from the sin and general disorder that polygamy produced in the lives of those who engaged in the practice. For example, the Old Testament reports disruptive favoritism in the polygamous marriages of Jacob (Gen. 29:30), Elkanah (1 Sam. 1:4-5), and Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11:21). In addition, jealously was a recurrent problem between the competing wives of Abraham (Gen. 21:9-10), Jacob (Gen. 30:14-16), and Elkanah (1 Sam. 1:6). Moreover, Scripture reports that Solomon’s foreign “wives turned away his heart after other gods” (1 Kings 11:4), a violation of the first commandment, and David’s multiple marriages led to incest and murder among his progeny.
In short, the Bible is clear that individuals in the history of Israel who abandoned God’s design of monogamy and participated in polygamy did so contrary to the Creator’s plan and ultimately to their own detriment. The sin and disorder produced by polygamy, then, is further testimony to the goodness of God’s monogamous design of marriage as first revealed in the marriage of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Not only is polygamy nowhere in the Old Testament spoken of with approval (though cf. Ex. 21:10-11; Deut 21:15-17), many passages clearly uphold monogamy as the continuing ideal (e.g., Prov. 12:4; 18:22; 19:14; 31:10-31; Ps. 128:3; Ezek. 16:8).
