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God made one woman and “brought her unto the man”, and the two “shall be one flesh”. When Jesus was asked about putting away a wife, He went back to that beginning: God “made them male and female”, and “they twain shall be one flesh”. Twain means two.

²²And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. ²³And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. ²⁴Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Genesis 2:22-24

⁴And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, ⁵And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? ⁶Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Matthew 19:4-6

⁶But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. ⁷For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; ⁸And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.

Mark 10:6-8

The first man in Scripture with more than one wife is Lamech, the son of Methusael in the line of Cain: “Lamech took unto him two wives”. Later in the same passage he tells those wives that he has “slain a man to my wounding”, and that if Cain is avenged sevenfold, “truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold”.

¹⁷And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. ¹⁸And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. ¹⁹And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

Genesis 4:17-19

²³And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. ²⁴If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Genesis 4:23-24

Scripture tells what the patriarchs and kings did without holding it up as the pattern, and where it describes these households closely, it shows the strife that came with them. Sarai gave Hagar to Abram “to be his wife”, and then said, “My wrong be upon thee”; later she said, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son”. Jacob “loved also Rachel more than Leah”, and Rachel “envied her sister”. Elkanah “had two wives”, and Peninnah, called Hannah's “adversary”, “provoked her sore” year by year. David “took him more concubines and wives”, and his sons by different wives turned on one another: Absalom told his servants, “Smite Amnon; then kill him”.

³And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. ⁴And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. ⁵And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.

Genesis 16:3-5

⁹And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. ¹⁰Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.

Genesis 21:9-10

³⁰And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. ³¹And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.

Genesis 29:30-31

And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.

Genesis 30:1

And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

1 Samuel 1:2

⁶And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. ⁷And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.

1 Samuel 1:6-7

²And unto David were sons born in Hebron: and his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; ³And his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;

2 Samuel 3:2-3

And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron: and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.

2 Samuel 5:13

²⁸Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, Mark ye now when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine, and when I say unto you, Smite Amnon; then kill him, fear not: have not I commanded you? be courageous, and be valiant. ²⁹And the servants of Absalom did unto Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king’s sons arose, and every man gat him up upon his mule, and fled.

2 Samuel 13:28-29

The law said of Israel's king, “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away”. Solomon did the opposite. He “had seven hundred wives”, and “his wives turned away his heart after other gods”. Nehemiah later points back to Solomon's foreign wives: “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things?” and “even him did outlandish women cause to sin.”

Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

Deuteronomy 17:17

³And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. ⁴For 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 11:3-4

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.

Nehemiah 13:26

The law nowhere sets up more than one wife as the pattern. Where a man already had more than one, it protected the wife who could be wronged. If he took another wife, the law said of the one already taken: her “food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish”. If he had “two wives, one beloved, and another hated”, he could not take the firstborn's rights from the hated wife's son. He was not to take a wife's sister “to vex her”.

If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.

Exodus 21:10

¹⁵If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated: ¹⁶Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn: ¹⁷But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

Deuteronomy 21:15-17

Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.

Leviticus 18:18

Through Nathan, God lists what He had given David: the kingdom, “thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom”. The list shows that David lacked nothing, and it leads straight into the charge: “Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD”, and “hast taken his wife to be thy wife”. The verse rebukes David's sin. It is not a command or a pattern for many wives, and the law had already told the king not to multiply wives. The judgment then falls on David's own house: “I will take thy wives before thine eyes”.

⁷And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; ⁸And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. ⁹Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. ¹⁰Now therefore 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. ¹¹Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.

2 Samuel 12:7-11

Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

Deuteronomy 17:17

Paul writes, “let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband”. A bishop must be “the husband of one wife”, and Paul says the same of the elders in Crete, and of deacons, “the husbands of one wife”. Marriage pictures Christ and the church: “they two shall be one flesh”, and “I speak concerning Christ and the church”.

Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

1 Corinthians 7:2

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

1 Timothy 3:2

Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

1 Timothy 3:12

⁵For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: ⁶If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. ⁷For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;

Titus 1:5-7

³¹For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. ³²This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Ephesians 5:31-32