Marriage and the Bible -- Part 18 -- Many Things Resurface

Time to get back on this series as I suspect it is going to take a while.

Now as we journey through Joshua and Judges some events reinforce what we have already talked about in past articles.

1. Caleb gives away a daughter to the man who captured a city for him. Nice prize.

2. While Gideon is probably most famous for his fleece (above), In Judges 8:30-31 he is noted for a couple of other things a) he had many wives and b) one of those wives was a concubine. Polygamy and concubinage

3. Jephthah was the son of a harlot, not a wife, of Gilead so when Gilead has other sons they drive him away. Difference between the wife and non-wife when it comes to legal obligations for the man become evident here. Also, it seems there are consequences for the children as well.

4. Samson illustrates several things: 1) The intermarrying issue comes up again as Samson desires women outside the Israelite camp and 2) Samson's original wife is given away to another man -- wives as trading cards again.

5. Judges 19 -- A Levite's concubine is raped and it is because the Levite and the host where they were staying offer her up to the Benjamites. Demonstrates the real second class citizenship of concubines in this culture. Even though later this rape would fire a civil war in Israel, throwing her to the dogs was apparently not a difficult decision.

6. Judges 21 -- the need for wombs in the tribe of Benjamin means women are acquired from two sources that involve kidnapping and battle. The tribe needed baby making marriages and they found the wombs necessary and married them to the surviving Benjamites.

Your probably wondering how the women felt about all this -- truth is because of living in this culture they would have accepted it. As long as a man was providing for her and her children as well as giving her respectability by being married and not a harlot or beggar, a woman had no personal problem sharing her bed with a man. She would have considered it her duty and obligation as a wife.

Next: Ruth - Romance at Last?