Jacob 2:24

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Reference Search: Jacob 2:24

24 Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.

Quotes for Discussion

Many Wives

From modern revelation we understand why Jacob condemned David and Solomon for having married many wives and concubines without the Lord’s approval. It is a sin to take plural wives when God has not specifically commanded it. Abraham, for example, had plural wives and was not condemned because God had commanded it (see D&C 132:37-39).

Thomas R. Valletta, ed.,

Book of Mormon for Latter-day Saint Families, 156

"There shall not any man among you have save it be one wife."

Plural marriage is not essential to salvation or exaltation. Nephi and his people were denied the power to have more than one wife and yet they could gain every blessing in eternity that the Lord ever offered to any people. In our day, the Lord summarized by revelation the whole doctrine of exaltation and predicated it upon the marriage of one man to one woman. (D&C 132:1-28.)

Bruce R. McConkie,

Mormon Doctrine, 578

There is no contradiction between Jacob and the Doctrine and Covenants. Jacob declared that the Lord prevented the Nephites from practicing plural marriage, and called attention to the fact that David and Solomon sinned taking wives that the Lord did not give them, which is true. However, the key to the situation may be found by reading further the account in Jacob. The Lord said: "For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things." [Jacob 2:30]

It is not strange that the Lord did not condemn Abraham and Jacob (Israel) upon whom he founded the house of Israel; nor did he condemn the parents of Samuel, the great prophet, nor others who had plural families. He did not condemn Solomon and David for having wives which the Lord gave them.

Turn to 2 Samuel 12:7-8, and you will find that the Lord gave David wives. In reading the Old Testament you will also find that Solomon was blessed and the Lord appeared to him and gave him visions and great blessings when he had plural wives, but later in life, he took wives that the Lord did not give him. For evidence of this, turn to 1 Kings 11, and read it. You can tell these people that the whole house of Israel was built on the twelve sons of Jacob who had four wives—Mothers of the house of Israel.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Question, [1957-66], 4:213-14

There is only one exception to a man’s having more than one wife: when the Lord commands otherwise. The plurality of wives was introduced into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the Prophet Joseph Smith because the Lord commanded it. Although the principle was revealed as early as 1831, it was not practiced until several years later (see D&C 132 section heading). The commandment was under the direction of the Prophet Joseph and limited to those designated by him, as he was inspired of the Lord. In 1843, the same year it was recorded, Joseph said: "I gave instructions to try those persons who were preaching, teaching, or practicing the doctrine of plurality of wives; for, according to the law, I hold the keys of this power in the last days; for there is never but one time on earth at a time on whom the power and its keys are conferred; and I have constantly said no man shall have but one wife at a time, unless the Lord directs otherwise" (

TPJS,

324). It was also discontinued on the same basis—by revelation. Because of the political circumstances of the day, and probably because its purposes of raising up seed to the Lord was fulfilled, the Lord showed the circumstances to President Wilford Woodruff and then commanded him what to do (see excerpts from "Three Addresses by president Wilford Woodruff Regarding the Manifesto." Doctrine and Covenants, pp. 292-293). Both the beginning and the discontinuance of the plurality of wives in the Church comply with the following teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith:

That which is wrong under one circumstance, may be, and often is, right under another…that is the principle on which the government of heaven is conducted—by revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the children are placed. Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire. [

TPJS, 256]

Plural marriage was commanded in the early days of the Church, as it has been periodically throughout the history of the world, "to raise up seed unto [the Lord]" (Jacob 2:30). Although many theories of why plural marriage was commanded have been advanced, the raising up of seed unto the Lord is the only scriptural answer that has been given. Through revelation the Lord discontinued the practice. Therefore, those who enter into plural marriage today do so without the approval of the Church, and are accountable to the Lord for their actions.

Monte S. Nyman,

These Records are True: Jacob through Mosiah, p. 32-34

Concubines

In modern times a concubine is a woman who cohabits with a man without being his wife. But from the beginning of creation, all down through the history of God’s dealings with his people, including those with the house of Israel, concubines were legal wives married to their husbands in the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. (D&C 132:1, 37-39, 65). Anciently they were considered to be secondary wives, that is, wives who did not have the same standing in the caste system then prevailing as did those wives who were not called concubines. There were no concubines connected with the practice of plural marriage in this dispensation, because the caste system which caused some wives to be so designated did not exist.

Bruce R. McConkie,

Mormon Doctrine, p. 154

By definition, a concubine would be either a woman kept for lewd purposes or a lawful wife of a lower social standing than her husband’s other wife or wives (see also Mosiah 11:2). Hagar, plural wife of Abraham, would be an example of the latter, inasmuch as Abraham did only that which he was commanded (D&C 132:370. The offense to which Jacob made reference was the Nephites’ consorting either with paramours or with wives improperly taken.

Robert Millet and Joseph McConkie,

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon,

2:20

Plural Marriage in Latter Days

Did the Saints practice plural marriage because there were more women than men?

The most common of these conjectures is that the Church, through plural marriage, sought to provide husbands for its surplus of female members. The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more female than male members in the Church, is not supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seems always to have been more males than females in the Church

John A. Widtsoe,

Evidences & Reconciliations [salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1987], 307-309

[Joseph Smith]…knew the commandment of the Almighty to him was to go forward—to set the example, and establish Celestial plural marriage. He knew that he had not only his own prejudices and prepossessions to combat and overcome, but those of the whole Christian world stared him in the face; but God, who is above all, had given the commandment, and he must be obeyed, yet the Prophet hesitated and deferred from time to time, until an angel of God stood by him with a drawn sword, and told him that, unless he moved forward and established plural marriage, his Priesthood would be taken from him and he should be destroyed.

Eliza R. Snow,

Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow

[Reprint of 1884 edition, Deseret News, 1975], 69-70

If any man had asked me what was my choice when Joseph Smith revealed the doctrine,…I would have said, "let me have but one wife.’ …It was the first time in my life that I desired the grave, and I could hardly get over it for a long time.

Brigham Young; as quoted in

Comprehensive History of the Church,

ed. By B. H. Roberts [Orem, Utah; Sonos Publishing, 1991], 2:201-203

I had always entertained the strict ideas of virtue, and I felt as a married man that this was to me, outside of this principle, an appalling thing to do. The idea of going and asking a young lady to be married to me when I had already a wife! I had always entertained the strictest regard of chastity….With the feelings I had entertained, nothing but a knowledge of God, and the revelations of God, and the truth of them, could have induced me to embrace such a principle as this.

John Taylor,

The Life of John Taylor

[salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002], 100

The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith means trust—trust in God’s will, trust in His way of doing things, and trust in His timetable….

People who do not accept continuing revelation sometimes get into trouble by doing things too soon or too late or too long. The practice of plural marriage is an example.

Dallin H. Oaks,

With Full Purpose of Heart

[salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002], 207-208