Secondary wives^(1) (the term concubine often has pejorative connotations and should therefore be avoided) were wives who had fewer rights and a lower status than principal wives, but still a higher rank than slaves. For example, Secondary wives - for all we know - were probably not issued a divorce certificate on separation, a prerequisite for being able to remarry. The term used in Hebrew for secondary wives is פִּלֶגֶשׁ pilægæš, which, however, has no related words in the Semitic language area to my knowledge. Sometimes other terms are used for secondary wives, but these can also mean slaves. One could therefore conclude that secondary wives were legally closer to slaves than normal wives, but one crucial difference certainly existed: Secondary wives were free, slave wives logically not, and the importance of this legal difference can hardly be overemphasised. Since a man in ancient Israel was responsible for the financial support of all his wives and also had to pay financially in the event of divorce, the fact that Solomon had over 700 wives naturally illustrates his enormous wealth. Since marriages played a not insignificant role in ancient diplomacy and Solomon appears as a skilled diplomat in the narratives, the number of wives may also play a role in this context.

This point immediately brings us to the second part of the question: "Was such extravagant polygamy an accepted practice among ancient Israelite rulers? " Whether one chooses to see Solomon as an insignificant local ruler who rose to prominence and fame in later narratives or chooses to place him closer to his literary counterpart, he was very likely a real ruler of ancient Israel and the core texts about him (from which all other traditions derive) are 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. What both of these writings have in common is that their relationship to kingship in their final versions can at best be described as ambivalent. Not only is kingship seen from the beginning as a turning away from God (1 Samuel 8:7.18 "But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not thee that they have rejected, but me that they have rejected, that I should not be king over them"; "If ye (Israel) shall cry for help in that day because of your king whom ye have chosen, the LORD will not answer you in that day"), but also in the further course of the narratives even "prominent" kings like David or Solomon appear unflattering. Rehoboam, for example, sums up his father's reign with the words "My father has made your yoke heavy. I will make it heavier still. My father chastised you with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions." Solomon's numerous wives and secondary wives are also to be seen in this context. As announced by the God of Israel in the narrative of 1 Samuel 8:1ff, the kingship proves to be exploitative and decadent. At the same time, at least in the narrative of the editors of the Deuteronomistisches Geschichtswerk (DtrG), which comprises the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, they fulfil yet another function: in the theology of the DtrG, apostasy from God comes primarily from outside, and so it is ultimately also Solomon's women from the foreign peoples who persuade the wise but, in the narrative, at this point already decrepit king to apostatise. In the Book of Sirach (47:21ff), the beginning of the end of the kingdom is also associated with Solomon's women: "Your heart was set on women, and you let them rule you, and you stained your honour and wasted your strength, so that wrath came upon your descendants and they mourned because of your folly, when the kingdom was divided and an idolatrous kingdom arose in Ephraim." The books of Chronicles, on the other hand, only know of two of Solomon's wives and are silent about other wives. But this may be due to the basic tendency of the more recent Chronicles to idealise and „theologise“ kingship. Or to put it in the striking words of Julius Wellhausen: "What has the Chronicle made of David! The founder of the empire has become the founder of the temple and of worship, the king and hero at the head of his comrades-in-arms was turned into a cantor and liturgist at the head of a swarm of priests and Levites, his so sharply drawn figure turned into a dull image of a saint, shrouded in a cloud of consecration. [...] historical value has only the tradition of the older sources."

In summary: The distinction between wives and „concubines“ is due to the legal circumstances of the time. The number of women mentioned fulfils a theological function in the context of the narrative and paints the kingship under Solomon as decadent and exploitative. Or as Brueggemann describes the portrayal of Solomon in the Books of Kings: „Solomon ends exposed as failure: A temple for presence becomes a house of absence for the deported; the gift of wisdom is transformed into distorted foolishness; and the accumulation of wealth culminates in disastrous loss” (p. 156)

^(1)Edit: English Bible translations often choose the word concubine even though the Hebrew speaks of secondary wives.

BRUEGGEMANN, Walter A., Solomon: Israel’s Ironic Icon of Human Achievement (Studies on Personalities of the Old Testament), Columbia (South Carolina) 2005.

DYMA, Oliver, Art. Ehe (AT), in: Das Wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet (www.wibilex.de), 2010.

HENTSCHEL, Georg, Die Königsbücher, in: Zenger, Erich (Hg), Einleitung in das Alte Testament, Stuttgart ^(7)2008, p.239-249.

NITSCHE, Martin, Art. Salomo, in: Das Wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet (www.wibilex.de), 2017.

RÖSEL, Martin; ALBANI, Matthias: Altes Testament, ^(2)2007, Stuttgart, p.65-67

STEINS, Georg, Die Bücher der Chronik, in: Zenger, Erich (Hg), Einleitung in das Alte Testament, Stuttgart ^(7)2008, p.249-263.