Does Exodus 21:9-11 Give A Wife Authority To Prevent Her
Husband From Marrying An Additional Wife?
Shalom
I will respond in the body of the text.
Shalom Again!
This is the text,
allowing a wife to LEAVE/Divorce her husband, if he takes another wife and HER
rights from the marriage are diminished:
Ex. 21:9 - 11. And if he
hath betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of
daughters. IF he take him another WIFE, HER FOOD, HER RAIMENT AND HER DUTY OF
MARRIAGE (FREQUENCY OF SEXUAL INTERCOURCE) shall NOT BE DIMINISHED. And IF HE
DO NOT THESE THREE THINGS UNTO HER, then she shall go out FREE without money!
This scripture was
written to relieve 'slave women' from injustice caused by a polygynous husband,
and is applied to 'non-slave women' to relieve them from the SAME injustice
which could be created from being married to a husband who chooses to be
polygynous. The rationale is why should SLAVE women be allotted this freedom to
escape from such an unjust man, while the FREE women could not.
That cinches it from the
TORAH regarding if the FIRST wife's DUES/RIGHTS are diminished, she can
"KICK THAT HUBAND TO THE CURB! (meaning to divorce him).
So a man who chooses
that lifestyle might end up losing the wife/wives he originally had due to
lusting after another one!
Is Desire For An Additional Wife Lust?
I agree with your rationale until the last sentence. And what I take issue with is the phrase "lusting after another one".
What is your understanding of a husband lusting after another wife? Simply desiring to have another wife?
If this is the case with any husband who desires to have another wife, why would the Almighty allow husbands to have additional wives, yet at the same time command them in the 10th commandment of his covenant not to covet after what belongs to a neighbour?
You will see, if you consider the matter, that lust/covet pertains to what belongs to another, and not what does not belong to another. Such that the Almighty allows a husband to have an additional wife who is not someone else's wife, but forbids him from marrying someone else's wife. Forbidding this in his commandment against adultery, and in his stipulation that adulterers are to be stoned to death. Thereby showing that adulterers are not authorised to marry, but have their lives terminated if caught in the act under the provisions of the law.
Did The Almighty Share In David's Lust?
Consider also the Almighty's action in 2 Samuel 12:8, where he shows that he was the one who gave David his several wives, and was prepared to add him even more wives if those that he had already given him were not sufficient for him. Would you say that the Almighty was sharing in David's lust? Can the Almighty partake of sin in any form?
Is Levirate Marriage Founded On Lust?
Also, what about the Almighty's law pertaining to levirate marriage, whereby a widow is required to be married by a near kinsman of the late husband if he has no son to succeed to his name? Is not the near kinsman required to marry the widow, even if he already has a wife? Is this lust on the part of the near kinsman?
Did The Almighty Reprove Moses For Lust For Marrying An
Ethiopian Woman?
What about Moses marrying an additional wife, the Ethiopian woman, in addition to the Midianite woman who was already the mother of his two sons (Numbers 12)? When the Almighty reproved Miryam and Aaron for speaking out against Moses on this issue, why did he not likewise speak out against Moses? Yet when Moses transgressed his word in other matters he did not hesitate to speak out against him, and even barred him from entering the Promised Land? Surely Moses would have known that taking an additional wife was lust, if it was so, seeing that he was the one the Almighty gave the commandments to for onward transmission to Yisrael.
Desiring An Additional Wife Is Not Necessarily Lust
It should therefore be evident that it is not lust to desire an additional wife provided one does not breach other portions of the Almighty's laws. For example, if the reason for marrying an additional wife is to forsake one's responsibility to one's existing wife, then that is wrong on the ground of forsaking one's responsibility to one's existing wife, not on the ground of simply desiring an additional wife. If one desires another's wife, that is wrong on the ground of adultery, not on that of simply desiring another wife. And seeing that the Almighty himself authorised husbands having additional wives, and provided laws regulating such family arrangements, it is indeed evident that it is wholly within the Almighty's laws for a husband to so be polygynous. Also, seeing that the Almighty himself provided David with his several wives, and the Almighty cannot sin nor partake of any sin in any format, it should indeed be evident that polygyny is not wrong.
What Traditions And Ordinances Are Believers To Observe?
Paul tells us to
"observe the traditions/ordinances that were delivered unto them. This was
the understanding of Torah during the days of the NT. So please correct your
web page to include this information that I have provided you.
The "traditions/ordinances" that were delivered to the early assembly of disciples included the law. After all, did not the Messiah himself say in Matthew 5:17-19 that no portion of the law would pass away prior to heaven and earth passing away? Have heaven and earth passed away yet? Do we not, instead, see them in prophecy in Revelation 20-22 as passing away at a time after the Judgement and prior to the Father coming down to dwell on earth?
It should therefore be clear that if it is indeed the Messiah's words that form the basis of our conduct, and not other human reasoning, especially conflicting human reasoning, we will continue to uphold the Almighty's words in the Law, including those pertaining to allowing husbands to have additional wives, provided they remain compliant with other portions of his law.
A Wife Has No Authority To Depart From Her Marriage Due
To Her Husband Marrying An Additional Wife
A wife has no Scriptural authority to depart from her husband simply by virtue of her husband marrying an additional wife. If she so departs from her husband and marries another she makes herself an adulteress, according to the Messiah's teaching. And if she does not marry another, she still remains unsubmissive to her husband, thereby contravening the Messiah's teaching that wives should be submissive to their husbands in the Messiah.
Submit To The Almighty's Words
You have therefore, not yet, shown me any errors in my comments on the Scriptural acceptability of polygyny. If you can, I welcome them. If you cannot, then you ought not to resist the word of the Almighty, and submit yourself unto his words. After all, it is his words that will judge each one of us, both you and me included.
Shalom
ISAAC
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