Concubinage

How Nave’s arranged it

• LAWS CONCERNINGExodus 21:7–11Leviticus 19:20–22Deuteronomy 21:10–14
• Concubines might be dismissedGenesis 21:9–14
• Called WIVESGenesis 37:2Judges 19:3–5
• Children of, not heirsGenesis 15:4Genesis 21:10
• Practiced by
• AbrahamGenesis 16:3Genesis 25:61 Chronicles 1:32
• NahorGenesis 22:23Genesis 22:24
• JacobGenesis 30:4
• EliphazGenesis 36:12
• GideonJudges 8:31
• A LeviteJudges 19:1
• Caleb1 Chronicles 2:46–48

The passages, in Bible order (26)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 16 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 15:4

   Then the word of the LORD came to Abram, saying, “This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.”

   ›Commentary on Genesis 15:41 voice

   But if the words of Abraham are not enough to correct, consider the word of God, who condemns such a mode of transmitting inheritance. "This man shall not be your heir," he says, "but the other who will come out from you, he will be your heir." Who is this other of whom he speaks? In fact Hagar too bore a son, Ishmael, but he is not speaking of him. Instead, he is speaking of holy Isaac. For this reason he added "who will come out from you."

   Everything gathered on Genesis 15:4→

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Genesis 16:3

   So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 16:31 voice

   “It was not because he was ablaze with the heat of some unbridled passion, not because he was overcome by the charm of seductive beauty that Abraham gave preference to a relationship with a slave girl over the conjugal bed, but through a desire to procure a posterity and to enlarge his progeny. After the flood the human race was still numerically sparse. Hence it was also a matter of moral obligation that no one be seen to have failed to render the debt to nature.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 16:3→

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Genesis 21:9–14

   But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking her son,

   ›Commentary on Genesis 21:9–141 voice

   “(Chapter 21, Verse 9) And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she bore to Abraham, playing. What follows, with his son Isaac, is not present in the Hebrew. Therefore, this is interpreted in two ways by the Hebrews: either that she made idols out of play, according to what is written elsewhere: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play (Exodus 32:6); or that she claimed the rights of the firstborn against Isaac, as if he were older, through play and jest.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 21:9–14→

   Verse page →Original language →

4. Genesis 21:10

   and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”

   ›Commentary on Genesis 21:101 voice

   “Then Sarah, who showed no envy in any matter that concerned herself, became envious in this matter concerning her son. She was not envious of Hagar whom she had given to her husband. Since it was a matter of God's promise, and the son of …

   Everything gathered on Genesis 21:10→

   Verse page →Original language →

5. Genesis 22:23

   And Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight sons to Abraham’s brother Nahor.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 22:231 voice

   “And Bethuel begat Rebekah,....

   Everything gathered on Genesis 22:23→

   Verse page →Original language →

6. Genesis 22:24

   Moreover, Nahor’s concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 22:241 voice

   “And his concubine, whose name was Reumah,.... Not an harlot, but a secondary wife, who was under the proper and lawful wife, and a sort of a head servant in the family, and chiefly kept for the procreation of children; which was not thought either unlawful or dishonourable in those times such as was Hagar in Abraham's family: she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah, of whom we have no account elsewhere; only it may be observed, that here Maachah is the name of a man, which sometimes is given to a woman, 1Ki 15:13.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 22:24→

   Verse page →Original language →

7. Genesis 25:6

   But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 25:61 voice

   “But unto the sons of the concubines which Abraham had,....

   Everything gathered on Genesis 25:6→

   Verse page →Original language →

8. Genesis 30:4

   So Rachel gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife, and he slept with her,

   ›Commentary on Genesis 30:41 voice

   “So, lest she nag him, asking him every day for children, Jacob, who was sent from his parents to take a daughter of Laban, agreed to take the foreign woman. But it was also so that the sons of the maidservants might become joint heirs …

   Everything gathered on Genesis 30:4→

   Verse page →Original language →

9. Genesis 36:12

   Additionally, Timna, a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, gave birth to Amalek. These are the grandsons of Esau’s wife Adah.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 36:121 voice

   “And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau's son,....

   Everything gathered on Genesis 36:12→

   Verse page →Original language →

10. Genesis 37:2

    This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

    ›Commentary on Genesis 37:21 voice

    Sin against nature is the most wicked and is to be fled above all others. And concerning this crime, "Joseph accused his brothers before their father of a most grievous crime."

    Everything gathered on Genesis 37:2→

    Verse page →Original language →

11. Exodus 21:7–11

    And if a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as the menservants do.

    ›Commentary on Exodus 21:7–111 voice

    “And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant,....

    Everything gathered on Exodus 21:7–11→

    Verse page →Original language →

12. Leviticus 19:20–22

    If a man lies carnally with a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. But they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed.

    ›Commentary on Leviticus 19:20–221 voice

    “And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman,....

    Everything gathered on Leviticus 19:20–22→

    Verse page →Original language →

13. Deuteronomy 21:10–14

    When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive,

    ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 21:10–141 voice

    “But nevertheless I also intellectually have "gone out to war against my enemies, and I saw there" in the plunder "a woman with a beautiful figure." Whatever we find said well and reasonably among our philosophical enemies, or we read anything said among them wisely and knowingly, we must cleanse it. We must remove and cut off all that is dead and worthless. It is as if one were trimming the hairs of the head and the nails of the woman taken from the spoils of the enemy. Only then would you take her as a wife.

    Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 21:10–14→

    Verse page →Original language →

14. Judges 8:31

    His concubine, who dwelt in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.

    ›Commentary on Judges 8:311 voice

    “And his concubine that was in Shechem,.... Which was not an harlot, but a secondary or half wife; such were generally taken from handmaids, and of the meaner sort, and were not in such esteem as proper wives, had not the management of household affairs, only a share in the bed, and their children did not inherit.

    Everything gathered on Judges 8:31→

    Verse page →Original language →

15. Judges 19:1

    Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

    ›Commentary on Judges 19:11 voice

    “A Levite, more courageous than wealthy, lived in the region of Mount Ephrem, for his tribe was allotted a landed possession far removed in place of the right of inheritance. He took a wife from the tribe of Bethlehem of Judah. While they felt the first attraction of their love deeply and equally, he continued to burn with unbounded desire for his wife. Yet her ways were different. His passion for her intensified until he inwardly seethed with desire.

    Everything gathered on Judges 19:1→

    Verse page →Original language →

16. Judges 19:3–5

    her husband got up and went after her to speak kindly to her and bring her back, taking his servant and a pair of donkeys. So the girl brought him into her father’s house, and when her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him.

    ›Commentary on Judges 19:3–51 voice

    “After the fourth month slipped by her husband, who was overwhelmed with love and had nothing else to hope for, went to her, trusting that the young girl's heart would be softened on the advice of her parents. His father-in-law met him at the door and brought him into the house. He reconciled his daughter and, in order that he might send them away more joyous, kept them three days while he prepared a sort of nuptial banquet.

    Everything gathered on Judges 19:3–5→

    Verse page →Original language →