Every once in a while, our evening news onslaught of Middle East clashes and political wrangling is interrupted by a strangely disconcerting tale of a polygamist running the lives of dozens of wives and children. Warren Jeffs, for example, held almost 150 women and children in a Texas ranch in polygamous relationships. But polygamy can’t be shoved off into the religious offshoots of Mormonism in the West anymore. Islam, the fastest growing religion on the planet, promotes polygamy. Authorities are concerned that instead of decreasing, polygamous marriages are on the rise. Some people use biblical examples to justify the practice. Is this a problem? Is the government right to ban polygamy? Is it really that harmful? Did God’s leaders really have plural wives in the Old Testament?

Perhaps shockingly, the answer to all of these questions is yes! Some of the greatest known men in the Bible had multiple wives. Abraham and David both had multiple wives. Does that mean God condones polygamy? Absolutely not! God never once accepted and absolutely never commanded polygamy. In every case where polygamy was involved, men were punished for their disobedience to God’s marriage laws.

In an article titled “Here’s the Plain Truth About Old Testament Polygamy,” Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “There was polygamy in ancient Israel. But it was sin! God condemned it—He never condoned or sanctioned it” (Plain Truth, October 1963).

If we examine the fruits, as Christ commanded, we can see that not one of these plural marriages worked out well. These were great men, but they did make mistakes, mistakes that were recorded for “our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

Take Abraham, for example. His wife could not bear a son, though God had promised Abraham he would have one. Instead of simply continuing on and trusting God, Abraham and Sarah reasoned that Hagar should bear a child for Abraham. Hagar successfully conceived, yet this only brought more trouble into their lives. In addition to the intense jealousy the situation provoked in Sarah, God did not accept Ishmael (Hagar’s son) as the heir to the promises of Abraham. Later, God ordered Abraham to send Hagar away. After the birth of Isaac, Abraham had no more concubines—it wasn’t until after Sarah’s death that Abraham took another wife.

Abraham’s son Isaac had only one wife, Rebekah. Jacob was a bit more complicated, marrying Leah and then Rachel due to his father-in-law’s scheming. After his conversion in Genesis 32, however, Jacob ceased living in polygamy.

The most righteous king of Israel, David, had more than one wife. This disobeyed the direct command from God for kings not to multiply wives in Deuteronomy 17:17. David already had wives, and then took another, Uriah the Hittite’s wife, as his own after having Uriah killed. Because of this action, God said “the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife” (2 Samuel 12:9-12). Mr. Armstrong wrote, “This was a tremendous, super sin. God was meting out tremendous superpunishment” (ibid.). Later, David’s wives were defiled publicly except for Bathsheba. David was only saved from death because of his incredibly repentant attitude.

David had to flee Jerusalem because of the civil war that his actions had started. When he returned, the first thing he did was put away all his other wives and concubines. After severe punishment from God, David had realized the error of his sins and repented of them. He remained married to only one woman for the rest of his rule.

Solomon started out right, but by the end had 700 wives and 300 concubines. What did God say? “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 11:4).

There are other accounts of men having more than one wife, but close examination shows little happiness in these arrangements, and that God did not accept these marriages.

The misunderstanding about polygamy stems from a misunderstanding about the marriage relationship. Christ said, in Matthew 19:4-6, that God ordained marriage between man and wife (singular) “from the beginning.” God never intended men to marry more than one wife. The first man said to have more than one wife in the Bible was Lamech, a murderer and man of the most degenerate kind of evil. “God made one wife for Adam—not a harem!” Mr. Armstrong wrote. “He started the human family out as He ordained they should go—a family of one man and one wife! … God did not condone polygamy! He punished those who practiced it! It was always sin! It is sin today!” (ibid.).

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul reinforced God’s disapproval of polygamy in 1 Timothy 3:2: “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife.” One of the qualifications for a minister in God’s Church is that he have only one wife. No polygamist may be a minister in God’s Church.

Revelation 19:7 speaks of Christ returning to marry His Church, and His wife (singular) will be made ready. Christ will only marry the one Bride, not many different ones! This is why sins like polygamy are so grievous to God—because they demean the relationship He will have with His Church! The special relationship between husband and wife is to reflect the wonderful intimacy between Christ and His Bride, the Church. God condemned, and does to this day, polygamy because of this. However, God has blessed the institution of marriage between one husband and one wife as a God-plane relationship. For more on God’s plan for marriage, read our booklet Why Marriage! Soon Obsolete?