“Likewise, he is not to acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart will not turn away; and he is not to acquire excessive quantities of silver and gold.”-Deuteronomy 17:17
God’s instructions that a king of Israel must not have many wives was a command directed towards a unique ancient Middle Eastern phenomenon.
I’m talking about the social unit known as a “harem”.
Among Westerners, there’s a ton of misunderstanding concerning what a harem was all about in ancient times.
Most folks assume that a harem was just a pleasure palace full of beautiful women whose only purpose was to fulfill the sexual desires of the king and his court.
And likewise, most pastors and bible teachers get the wrong idea about the infamous story of Solomon and the huge number of wives and concubines he had in his harem.
Everyone in the gentile church seems to assume that Solomon was just a fire-breathing sex maniac and so sermons dealing with him and his wives are usually about why it’s important to keep your sexual desires under control and reserved for only wife.
Well, that’s just a bunch of bs.
Here’s the truth.
During Biblical times, political power was NOT just about possessing a strong military.
Forming strong alliances with other nations was also an important key to attaining influence and power and…
…in the Biblical era, such alliances were normally formed via intermarriage between the families of the kings that were involved.
So most pastors and Bible teachers totally miss the point when Scripture speaks about Solomon and his many wives and concubines.
What’s actually being demonstrated is the tremendous number of political alliances Solomon had successfully formed throughout the region AND…
…how from God’s perspective that was totally wrong.
The warning that “a king’s heart might be led astray” is referring to the danger that having such a large harem would tempt a king of Israel to shift his focus from the Lord’s people and the Lord’s commands to keeping all of his wives and the alliances they represented happy instead.
And don’t forget that the true Biblical definition of the word “heart” actually means “mind”.
So in this context, it is referring to the king’s intellect, his political interests and what he felt was important.
“Heart” in this context was NOT referring to his emotional feelings, or the lust and affection he had towards the members of his harem that could potentially override a king’s common sense.
Finally, understand that harems were not these big palaces filled with only women.
It was a place where the children of these women also lived.
Therefore, we’re talking more about a g-rated family atmosphere with kids happily running around and being coddled by their mothers and the attending servants than some kind of Caligula-style x-rated mass sexual orgy going on.
In addition, if a king was to disgrace or in anyway disrespect one of his wives in his harem, this could result in an international incident resulting in a war with the powerful family to which that wife belonged.
So there you have the truth.
Harems were more about political power and alliances than anything.
Brother, Here is yet another instance, that while we deviate from one another here and there, from what I can see, and what I understand, Your point is well made. The specifics of this teaching are spot on! Perhaps to being the best I have seen on this topic. Noting that you didn’t say that the sermons about marital virtue are not good in their intent, and may be even correct teaching. But they are misinterpreting their base scripture to do it.
Glad you enjoyed this article. Shalom.
What did Gd tell Solomon about all of his foreign wives? Did Gd tell him it was okay to have all of those foreign wives? I’m a westerner, btw.
1 Kings 11 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
“11 King Shlomo loved many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh. There were women from the Mo’avi, ‘Amoni, Edomi, Tzidoni and Hitti — 2 nations about which Adonai had said to the people of Isra’el, “You are not to go among them or they among you, because they will turn your hearts away toward their gods.” But Shlomo was deeply attached to them by his love. 3 He had 700 wives, all princesses, and 300 concubines; and his wives turned his heart away.” What did Gd tell him? He was told NOT to have all of those foreign women with him who would turn his heart away from Gd. SO, a harem is actually twofold – a pleasure troupe (read Esther, about the king that has one night of sex with every pretty girl in his kingdom then put her in a harem until he called her again for sex) and/or a family unit for women to be cared for (which women are still fighting to be freed from only because it’s so restrictive which is control. The article I just read about harems is written from Morocco entitled Dreams of Trespassing.
By the way, Westerners don’t think it’s a huge orgy. That’s your prejudice talking.
A harem indeed is a huge orgy or better yet a free brothel. This is hogwash. Im no westerner. A harem is a pleasure palace everywhere but in religious apologists bullshit.
Free? Have you ever even had one wife? Obviously not. Even one is anything but free. They often cost you your entire fortune. Or at least half. Nevermind 1,000 wives. 😄 Free 🤣 That was funny!
Just wondering your thoughts on why Abimelech took Sarah,
Was Abraham a good political alliance?
(I’m not doubting your comments on Solomon by the way, just perplexed about Abimelech
Actually, in this case, I think Abimelech just thought Sarah was hot (even at 70 years of age!)
While I might believe in Ancient Israel that having many wives and concubines may have been about political alliances I do want to point out that a concubine generally was not a free woman which is why she was given a lesser status. How would a woman of a lesser status from another nation helped Solomon politically?
Also I have a hard time believing that when men were appointed to search every province for “beautiful young virgins” to bring to King Ahasuerus’s harem and then they had to undergo 12 months of beauty treatments before they went to spend the night with the king that that had anything to do with politics.
Yes, this is mostly bull. However, harems which existed in every major culture were used to negotiate and as brothels and as sexual circuses. Hermaphrodites were often forced to live in harems. Do not be fooled Solomon was most definitely not sex but moreso these often utmost beautiful rare humans(albinos, hermaphrodites, slaves traded from other nations were not by any means given the respect or dignity to be considered an act of sin to lay with. IF anyone suggests that harems were not pleasure palaces has an agenda.
There were no sexually undesirable women in a harem, spin that. Also, the hermaphrodite has all but disappeared from scripture which is total bull, given that it is where I first encountered the word.
2 Samuel 12:8