Concubine

In Old Testament times a man could not only have several wives, but also one or more concubines. These concubines had a lower status and their main purpose was to bear children. They were also a symbol of wealth and power. Concubines do not feature in the New Testament.

There is little legal matter concerning marriage in the Old Testament. The concubine (Hebrew: pilegesh) is not mentioned in any of these texts.
Legal texts about concubines have, however, been found among other cultures of the ancient Near East. According to the Old-Babylonian book of Laws of Hammurabi (18th century BC), for instance, a man could take a concubine even if he already had children by his first wife. The first wife herself could offer her husband a slave woman. A child from this relationship was regarded as the child of the man and his first wife.

Although the legal texts of the Old Testament do not deal with the subject of “concubines”, concubines do occur in various narratives.
In Genesis, the main purpose of concubines is to bear children for infertile wives. Well-known examples are Hagar (Genesis 16:1-16), and Bilhah and Zilpah (Genesis 30:1-13).

In Samuel and Kings, concubines are primarily a symbol of wealth and power. King Solomon yokes the crown together with 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). Other kings also often had a harem.
Two stories show that concubines were directly associated with royal power:

From the period after the Babylonian exile and in New Testament times, concubines no longer play any part. It is known from extra-biblical sources that men could have mistresses. But they are not mentioned in the biblical narratives.