In Deuteronomy 21, after a war in the Old Testament, it says that if you wish to make a woman your wife, you must shave her head and cut her nails, etc., but what if he wanted to make her a concubine? Was this permitted or not? Deuteronomy doesn’t say anything at all about this.<\/p>\n\t
A concubine is a slave woman who becomes a man’s wife. For example, “After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife<\/em>” (Genesis 16:3). Later, Abraham married another slave woman. “Now Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah<\/em>” (Genesis 25:1). However, she was also referred to as Abraham’s concubine. “The sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine, whom she bore, were Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan were Sheba and Dedan<\/em>” (I Chronicles 1:32).<\/p>\n Those taken in wars became slaves in Israel. These women, when old enough, were eligible for marriage. “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 21:10-13). Thus, these women would be concubines — slave women who were made wives.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: In Deuteronomy 21, after a war in the Old Testament, it says that if you wish to make a woman your wife, you must shave her head and cut her nails, etc., but what if he wanted to make her a concubine? Was this permitted or not? Deuteronomy doesn’t say anything at all about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[833,76],"class_list":["post-82987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-concubines","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1534,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-many-children-did-abraham-have\/","url_meta":{"origin":82987,"position":0},"title":"How many children did Abraham have?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How many children did Abraham have? Answer: Abraham had a son, named Ishmael, by his wife's maid, Hagar, whom he had taken as a concubine (a servant who was also a wife) (Genesis 16:3-4). However, since he was not the child promised to Abraham and Sarah, he was not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36597,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-many-sons-did-abraham-have\/","url_meta":{"origin":82987,"position":1},"title":"How many sons did Abraham have?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding Genesis 20, where it says Sarah was untouched. So being the wife of Abraham she had no relations with him?\u00a0 Then how was it written she was barren?\u00a0 Abraham was married to his half-sister so he only told half a lie to the Pharaoh. Why was the Pharaoh\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2340,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-change-his-mind-about-sexual-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":82987,"position":2},"title":"Did God change His mind about sexual sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Did God change? How is it that God that was so quiet about fornication, adultery, and polygamy in the Old Testament and then suddenly changed in the New Testament? Answer: It is in the Old Testament that we learn that a man is to leave his family, get married,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33654,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-mans-actions-in-judges-1922-24-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":82987,"position":3},"title":"Were the man’s actions in Judges 19:22-24 wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Were the man's actions in Judges 19:22-24 wrong? I'm sure it's addressed on the website, but I searched for it and I think I just couldn't think of the best way to search for it. Was it wrong for the man to offer his daughter like that? The passage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46588,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-fornication-not-include-sex-before-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":82987,"position":4},"title":"Does fornication not include sex before marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like to address a post on your site:\u00a0Does God forgive Christians who commit fornication and sexual immorality? Your reply to this woman is typical of every misguided Christian when it comes to the question of \"fornication.\" You brought down the hammer on this girl quoting from I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69235,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-explain-leviticus-1920-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":82987,"position":5},"title":"Can you explain Leviticus 19:20 more?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does Leviticus 19:20 imply that if the slave woman was not betrothed, it was not a sin to sleep with her? What punishment would it have been? Is the primary sin harm of the owner's property or sexual sin in itself? Why is no monetary compensation paid, unlike Deuteronomy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}