Page 28 - The Marriage Covenant

raise up offspring. These handmaids were Zilpah and Bilhah, and the Scriptures name them
as the “wives” of Jacob.

Genesis 37:2
Joseph, when seventeen years of age, was pasturing the flock with his brothers while
he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his
father's wives.

We also read that Esau, the brother of Jacob, had more than one wife.

Genesis 36:2-3
Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the
Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and the granddaughter of Zibeon the
Hivite; also Basemath, Ishmael's daughter.

In these Scriptures we find that the practice of having more than one wife led to
problems. Sarah became jealous of Hagar when Hagar began acting proudly upon bearing
Abraham a son. Sarah treated Hagar harshly, and Hagar was later sent away with her son.
Although Jacob had not intended to marry Leah, being deceived by her father Laban,
the fact that he took two sisters as wives led to great friction between them. The practice of
a man marrying sisters was later forbidden in the Law of Moses, but the Law would not be
given for another 400 years.

Leviticus 18:18
And you shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is
alive...

It should be noted here, that even though the Law forbid a man to marry sisters, it did
not forbid a man to have more than one wife. Indeed, the Law addressed various issues that
arose from a man who should take more than one wife, thereby allowing the practice while
setting up guidelines for its practice.

Deuteronomy 21:15-17
If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and
the unloved have borne him sons, if the first-born son belongs to the unloved, then
it shall be in the day he wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the
loved the first-born before the son of the unloved, who is the first-born. But he shall
acknowledge the first-born, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion
of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; to him belongs the right of
the first-born.

Throughout the history of Israel, after the Law had been given, we read of numerous
examples of men having more than one wife. There is never any prohibition of the practice,
though it often led to problems. We read of an Israelite from the tribe of Ephraim, a
descendant of Joseph, who had more than one wife.