Concubinage

Concubinage is a household arrangement, attested throughout the Old Testament narratives, in which a woman of subordinate social status — often a servant or slave — is attached to a man as a secondary sexual partner and mother of his children without the standing of a primary wife. The Hebrew word usually translated “concubine” is pilegesh, and the terminology of the texts is not rigid: Bilhah and Zilpah, mothers of several of Jacob’s sons, are called his father’s “wives” in Genesis 37:2, which indicates that the difference between wife and concubine was chiefly one of rank and origin within the household rather than a sharply fixed legal category.

The narratives tie concubinage closely to the question of heirs. Yahweh’s word to Abram promises an heir who will come from his own body (Genesis 15:4), and the child born through the servant Hagar is drawn into that story: Sarah demands that the servant and her son be cast out because “the son of this servant will not be heir with my son, Isaac” (Genesis 21:10), while God tells Abraham that his offspring will be named through Isaac yet also promises to make a nation of the servant’s son “because he is your child” (Genesis 21:12–13). Abraham sends Hagar away with bread and a container of water (Genesis 21:14), and later gives gifts to the sons of his concubines and sends them eastward, away from Isaac (Genesis 25:6). The pattern the text records is consistent: children of a concubine are acknowledged and provided for, but they do not share the primary inheritance.

Elsewhere concubinage appears as an expression of royal wealth and dynastic ambition. David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him (2 Samuel 5:13); Solomon is said to have had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, and the text adds that his wives turned his heart away (1 Kings 11:3); Belshazzar summons his lords, wives, and concubines to drink from the vessels taken from the Jerusalem temple (Daniel 5:2). The book of Judges introduces a Levite who took a concubine from Bethlehem Judah at a time when “there was no king in Israel” (Judges 19:1), a framing that colors the grim account that follows.

Scripture records the practice far more than it commends it, and none of these passages presents concubinage as an ideal; the notices most often cluster around rivalry, divided households, and religious compromise. Traditions read the material differently. Rabbinic discussion treats the pilegesh as a recognized but lesser union, historically distinguished from full marriage by the absence of a marriage contract, and later authorities hedged the practice about with restrictions. In Christian tradition, most readings take the narratives as description of ancient Near Eastern household custom rather than prescription, with some emphasizing the domestic strife the texts themselves report (Genesis 21:9–14; 1 Kings 11:3) and others emphasizing the text’s candor about the conduct of the patriarchs, or the divine care shown to the concubine’s child (Genesis 21:13).

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.