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NASB | Exodus 21:10 "If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Exodus 21:10 "If her master marries another wife, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her privilege as a wife. |
Bible Question: In the old testiment polygamy was accepted and prevalent. When and why did this change? No one . . . even Biblical scholars can answer this for me. David and Solomon had many wives. why can't I? When did this change. God is not changable is he? Please advise! |
Bible Answer: Monogamy is the ideal for marriage but the Bible allows polygyny but not polyandry. Marrying Tamar the wife of a deceased brother was expected of Onan in Genesis 38 and was later part of the Law in Deuteronomy 25 which doesn't mention whether the man already has a wife. This was an attempt to heal the social fabric by producing an heir to a deceased brother and support for his wife. Ruth 3 and 4 tell of Boaz marrying Naomi when the nearest kin refuses. David's adultery was taking another man's wife not his multiple wives but Deuteronomy 17:17 warned against Kings having multple wives. Women were treated as property and that is how the commandments were interpretted then. Paul taught in 1 Timothy 3:2,12 that Church leaders should have only on spouse but churches in Africa have been wrong to cause converted men to divorce all but one wife to be accepted into membership. Deuteronomy 17:17 "He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself. Deuteronomy 25:5-10 5 "When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. 6 "It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. 7 " But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.' 8 "Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, 'I do not desire to take her,' 9 then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall declare, 'Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.' 10 "In Israel his name shall be called, 'The house of him whose sandal is removed.' 2 Samuel 12:8 'I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! |