What does the Bible say about multiple wives?
Bible Topic · WEB
The Bible presents marriage as God’s covenantal union of one man and one woman, while honestly recording and regulating the broken practice of polygamy in Israel. Genesis establishes the creation pattern, and Jesus reaffirms its exclusivity when he condemns divorce and remarriage apart from biblical grounds in Matthew 5:32 and Luke 16:18. Exodus 21:10 and Deuteronomy 21:15-17 regulate obligations toward wives in a fallen society, but do not commend taking more than one. Deuteronomy 17:17 warns kings against multiplying wives, and Solomon’s many wives turned his heart from the Lord in 1 Kings 11:3. For Christian leaders, 1 Timothy 3:2 and 3:12 require faithfulness as the husband of one wife, reflecting the church’s calling to honor God’s design.
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Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible
- Exodus 21:10
If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights.
- Deuteronomy 17:17
Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
- 1 Corinthians 7:2
But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
- 1 Timothy 3:2
The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;
- 1 Kings 11:3
He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
- Isaiah 4:1
Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach."
- Luke 16:18
Everyone who divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery. He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.
- 1 Timothy 3:12
Let deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
- Deuteronomy 21:15-17
[15] If a man have two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers who was hated; [16] then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn: [17] but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
- Matthew 5:32
but I tell you that whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries her when she is put away commits adultery.
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