Any practice in the bible is a "biblical practice" including incest like when Lot's daughters got him drunk and had sex with him. Saying something is a "biblical practice" doesn't mean it is doctrinal. Just because someone in the bible did something doesn't mean that it is right. Polygamy was a cultural practice and the first recorded instance of it is not Abraham but a great grandson of Cain who killed people that he felt wronged him. This man, known as Lamech, is the first polygamist in the Bible. Virtually every story involving polygamy in the Bible where we have some details, involves jealousy, cruelty and suffering on the part of the women. Sarai was jealous of Hagar who was this poor girl that had to have sex with an old man because she was pressured into it.Seek the Truth wrote:Polygamy is a biblical practice. There is no way around it.
Jacob was tricked into marrying the wrong woman so the woman he loved, Rachel, had to deal with him having sex and children with the first wife while she couldn't have any kids so she had Jacob have sex with her handmaid so she could bear kids for her and then Leah had Jacob have sex with her handmaid to compete with Rachel. Both of these women seeking to outnumber each other in births to impress Jacob and be the one he loved more.
Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. There must have been a wedding every weekend or maybe some were bulk weddings, I don't even know how you have a relationship with 1000 women simultaneously. I wonder what their lives were like. If he spent a day with each wife (which would have been difficult with all his kingly duties) he wouldn't circle back around to that wife again for 2.7 years. That's a good model for marriage?
David had 12 wives I believe although he started with 2, and then that wasn't enough so he had a man killed so he could have that man's wife.
But this is a biblical practice, right? Nowhere does the Lord say he approved of this or commanded it. There's that bit about God giving David his master's wives, but why? Was it a test for David to see if he'd release them or keep them, or did some scribe make that part up?
Let's look at the Book of Mormon which has the actual word of the Lord himself concerning the matter.
The Lord said, "David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord." What thing would that be? Offering sacrifices to idol gods or adultery and having a man killed? Nope none of those instances were mentioned. The thing is having many wives and concubines. So I doubt he gave David those wives, something doesn't fit here.
Again, here is the word of the Lord: "For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none; For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts." Jacob 2:27-28
There you have it, having more than one wife is an abominable whoredom. God did not approve of David and Solomon's wives. How do we know that for sure? Because he spoke it in the law in Deuteronomy 17:17 where he states concerning the kings of Israel: "Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
In all three instances of men taking wives and concubines in the Book of Mormon (Jacob's people, King Noah, Riplakish) having many wives and concubines is also associated with a love for riches and wealth. They go hand in hand and each time, the people are condemned.
Now here is something interesting that a guy at FAIR shared with me. He pointed out this passage from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Take a look:
This is an interesting point. David probably did not read those words in the law, Solomon either. It was sealed in the ark long before they were born and it wasn't rediscovered until after they were both dead by the priest Hilkiah (2 Kings 22:8-11)."The Shoddy-Wall-Builders who went after "Precept" - Precept is a Raver of whom it says, "they shall surely rave" (Mic. 2:6) - they are caught in two: fornication, by taking two wives in their lifetimes, although the principle of creation is "male and female He created them" (Gen. 1:27) and those who went into the ark "went into the ark two by two" (Gen. 7:9). Concerning the Leader it is written "he shall not multiply wives to himself" (Deut. 17:17); but David had not read the sealed book of the Law in the Ark; for it was not opened in Israel from the day of the death of Eleazar and Joshua and the elders who served the goddess Ashtoret. It lay buried <and was not> revealed until the appearance of Zadok. Nevertheless the deeds of David were all excellent, except the murder of Uriah and God forgave him for that."
So these men taking on wives may have been part of the culture at the time, but the Lord in the Book of Mormon clearly and expressly says that them having many wives and concubines was an abomination. So trying to make a point by saying "biblical practice" and that's the end of the story is a very poor argument to make when you look at the details. It is something that only brought sorrow and was banned in the Nephite civilization for 1000 years of its existence from Lehi to Moroni; heck even the Lamanites kept that law even though the seemed to ignore everything else.
Again, the Lord says: "I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow, and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people in the land of Jerusalem, yea, and in all the lands of my people." Taking many wives and concubines was happening in Jerusalem and among ALL his people, it was pervasive. The Lord says to the Nephites that "they shall not commit whoredoms, like unto them of old, saith the Lord of Hosts." Jacob 2:33
The whoredoms committed by "them of old" could include Lamech, Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon but more particularly the last two but that could be because the Nephite people were focused on those two in particular.