Thematic Bible: Concubinage


Thematic Bible



" 'And if a man sells his daughter as a slave woman, she will not go out as male slaves go out. If {she does not please her master} who selected her, he will allow her to be redeemed; he has no authority to sell her to foreign people, since he has dealt treacherously with her. And if he selects her for his son, he shall do for her according to the regulations for daughters. read more.
If he takes for himself another, he will not reduce her food, her clothing, or her right of cohabitation. And if he does not do for her these three, she shall go out for nothing; there will not be silver [paid for her].

" 'And when a man lies with a woman [and there is] an emission of semen and she [is] a female slave promised to a man, but she indeed has not been ransomed or freedom has not be given to her, [there] shall be an obligation to compensate; they shall not be put to death, because she has not been freed. And he shall bring his guilt offering to Yahweh at the tent of assembly's entrance: a ram [for] a guilt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him {before} Yahweh with the ram of the guilt offering for his sin that he {committed}, and so his sin that he {committed} shall be forgiven him.

"When you go out for battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God gives them into your hand, and you lead the captives away, and you see among the captives a woman beautiful in appearance, and you become attached to her and you want to take her as wife, then you shall bring her into your household, and she shall shave her head, and she shall trim her nails. read more.
And she shall remove the clothing of her captivity from her, and she shall remain in your house, and she shall mourn her father and her mother {a full month}, and after this {you may have sex with her}, and you may marry her, and she may {become your wife}. And then if you do not take delight in her, then you shall let her go {to do whatever she wants}, but you shall not treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.


Then Sarai, the wife of Abram, took Hagar, her Egyptian servant, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband as his wife.

But to the sons of Abraham's concubines Abraham gave gifts. And while he [was] still living he sent them away eastward, [away] from his son Isaac, to the land of the east.

And the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: she gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.


These [are] the generations of Jacob. Joseph, [being] seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers. Now he [was] a helper with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, the wives of his father. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.

So her husband set out, and he went after her to speak {tenderly to her}, to bring her back. He took with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. And she brought him [to] her father's house, and the father of the young woman saw him and was glad to meet him. His father-in-law, the young woman's father, urged him to stay with him three days; and they ate and drank, and they spent the night there. On the fourth day, they rose early in the morning, and he prepared to go, but the father of the young woman said to his son-in-law, "{Refresh yourself} [with] a bit of food, and afterward you may go."


David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters [were] born to him.

The king went out with all his household {following him}, but the king left behind ten concubines to look after the house.


Then she said to Abraham, "Drive out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman will not be heir with my son, with Isaac."

And behold, the word of Yahweh [came] to him saying, "This [person] will not {be your heir}, but {your own son will be your heir}."


And Ephah, the concubine of Caleb, gave birth to Haran, Moza, and Gazez. And Haran fathered Gazez. And the sons of Jahdai [were] Regem, Jotham, Geshan, Pelet, Ephah, and Shaaph. Maacah, the concubine of Caleb, gave birth to Sheber and Tirhanah.


(Now, Bethuel fathered Rebekah). These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, the brother of Abraham. And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.


And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne Abraham, mocking. Then she said to Abraham, "Drive out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman will not be heir with my son, with Isaac." And the matter {displeased Abraham very much} on account of his son. read more.
Then God said to Abraham, "{Do not be displeased} on account of the boy and on account of the slave woman. {Listen to everything that Sarah said to you}, for through Isaac [your] offspring will be named. And I will also make the son of the slave woman into a nation, for he is your offspring." Then Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave [it] to Hagar, putting [it] on her shoulder. And he sent her away with the child, and she went, wandering about in the wilderness, in Beersheba.


And Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines (for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).


But Abijah became strong, and he took to himself fourteen wives and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.


The sons of Manasseh: Asriel, whom his Aramean concubine bore; she gave birth to Makir the father of Gilead.




(Now Timnah was the concubine of Eliphaz, the son of Esau. And she bore Amalek to Eliphaz.) These [are] the sons of Adah, the wife of Esau.


Saul had had a concubine, and her name [was] Rizpah the daughter of Aiah. Then [Ish-Bosheth] said to Abner, "Why {did you have sex with} my father's concubine?"


Then she gave him Bilhah, her female servant, as a wife, and Jacob went in to her


In those days there was no king in Israel; there was a man, a Levite, who dwelled as a foreigner in the remote areas of the hill country of Ephraim. And he took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.


His concubine who [was] in Shechem also bore for him a son, and {he named him} Abimelech.


{When he tasted the wine}, Belshazzar commanded [that they] bring [the] vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar his {predecessor} had taken from the temple that [was] in Jerusalem, so that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines may drink from them.