Concubines

"Now it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, "Indeed Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor; Huz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel. And Bethuel begot Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Thahash, and Maachah." (Genesis 22:20-23)

Many years back Abraham was called by God to leave his country, his family and his father's house, in order to follow where God would lead (Genesis 12:1-3). This proved Abraham's righteousness in God's eyes in that he did not value family more than he valued God; in other words his priorities were in right order with God being of the highest priority.

But that doesn't mean Abraham didn't value his family and perhaps long for news of his family or hope for the best for them even though they were separated by distance for so many years.

Now, someone, perhaps a servant or a traveler, has brought Abraham information about his only surviving brother Nahor (Genesis 11:27) and about all the children that Nahor has fathered throughout these past many years, both with his wife Milcah and his concubine Reumah. And it appears that Abraham is not adverse to hearing about the news, and most likely receives it with gladness.

We haven't talked much about concubines, but since this passage is such a short one, this might be a good time to discuss them.

Concubines are such a foreign oddity to Western culture, or perhaps just an oddity to Christian culture, since even some Westerners made concubines of slave women before slavery came to an end. To many of us, concubinage seems a demeaning and quite deplorable act as we relate it to adultery and having mistresses, yet we have to understand that in the Middle Eastern culture of Abraham's time, it was a legal and socially acceptable thing to do. It was a symbol of status and wealth if a man had a wife as well as a concubine or two (or more). Of course, he had to be wealthy to be able to support the larger family that concubines might provide him in addition to those children his own wife provided.

King Solomon, one of the richest men of those days, had 300 wives (including concubines) and produced 700 children, or thereabouts. Without the wealth he had, he could not have supported so great a family.

The concubines themselves might have been slaves (such as Sarah's maidservant Hagar) or they might just have been of an inferior social status. What they received from such a relationship was economic security; in a society that was harsh on its women, such security was highly valued. The concubines were to be treated honorably and as kindly as the wives, but they never had the same legal equality of social status that the wives had.

The children of concubines also received the economic benefits of belonging to a rich man's household, and as Abraham exhibited, were loved by their fathers; the more children men had the more they counted themselves blessed. But the children of concubines never received the full inheritance that the children of the wife would receive. The bulk of the inheritance went to the children of the wife, while the children of the concubines would receive smaller gifts; thus establishing a perfect breeding ground for jealousy such as we saw from Hagar and her son, Ishmael.

We will hear more of Abraham and concubines as our study continues. But this particular passage of scripture will bear some importance when it comes to Abraham's decision to find a wife for Isaac.