פִּלֶ֫גֶשׁ
pi.le.gesh
concubine
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Pillegesh: The Hebrew Term for Concubine The Hebrew word *pillegesh* appears 37 times throughout the biblical text and refers specifically to a concubine—a woman in a recognized but subordinate domestic and sexual relationship within a household. The term identifies a distinct social status that differs from that of a wife, though the lexicon data provided does not specify the precise legal or social distinctions that differentiated concubines from wives in ancient Israelite society. The frequency of this word's occurrence (37 times) suggests that concubinage was a sufficiently established practice in ancient Israel to warrant consistent terminology. The word's presence across multiple biblical narratives indicates it was neither marginal nor condemned outright in the biblical tradition, though the lexicon data alone does not reveal whether the practice was presented approvingly, neutrally, or with critique in specific contexts. Without additional contextual data, we can only conclude that *pillegesh* functioned as a standard Hebrew term for a recognized household role, used consistently enough across biblical literature that readers would have understood it as referring to a particular social arrangement within ancient Israelite domestic structures.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
37 total occurrences across the text
In the evening she went, and on the next day she returned into the second women’s house, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who kept the concubines. She came in to the king no more, unless the king delighted in her, and she was called by name.
Song of Solomon 6:8There are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and virgins without number.
Song of Solomon 6:9My dove, my perfect one, is unique. She is her mother’s only daughter. She is the favorite one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed. The queens and the concubines saw her, and they praised her.
Ezekiel 23:20She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Genesis 22:24His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
Genesis 25:6but Abraham gave gifts to the sons of Abraham’s concubines. While he still lived, he sent them away from Isaac his son, eastward, to the east country.
Genesis 35:22While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
Genesis 36:12Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau’s son; and she bore to Eliphaz Amalek. These are the descendants of Adah, Esau’s wife.
Judges 8:31His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.
Judges 19:1In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took for himself a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.
Judges 19:2His concubine played the prostitute against him, and went away from him to her father’s house to Bethlehem Judah, and was there for four months.
Judges 19:9When the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father-in-law, the young lady’s father, said to him, “Behold, now the day draws toward evening, please stay all night. Behold, the day is ending. Stay here, that your heart may be merry; and tomorrow go on your way early, that you may go home.”
Judges 19:10But the man wouldn’t stay that night, but he rose up and went near Jebus (also called Jerusalem). With him were a couple of saddled donkeys. His concubine also was with him.
Judges 19:24Behold, here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. I will bring them out now. Humble them, and do with them what seems good to you; but to this man don’t do any such folly.”
Judges 19:25But the men wouldn’t listen to him; so the man grabbed his concubine, and brought her out to them; and they had sex with her, and abused her all night until the morning. When the day began to dawn, they let her go.
Judges 19:27Her lord rose up in the morning and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way; and behold, the woman his concubine had fallen down at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold.
Judges 19:29When he had come into his house, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel.
Judges 20:4The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, “I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night.
Judges 20:5The men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house by night. They intended to kill me and they raped my concubine, and she is dead.
Judges 20:6I took my concubine and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.
2 Samuel 3:7Now Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah; and Ishbosheth said to Abner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”
2 Samuel 3:7Now Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah; and Ishbosheth said to Abner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”
2 Samuel 5:13David took more concubines and wives for himself out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David.
2 Samuel 15:16The king went out, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house.
2 Samuel 16:21Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.”
2 Samuel 16:22So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
2 Samuel 19:5Joab came into the house to the king, and said, “Today you have shamed the faces of all your servants, who today have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and of your daughters, and the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines;
2 Samuel 20:3David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.
2 Samuel 21:11David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
1 Kings 11:3He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. His wives turned his heart away.
1 Chronicles 3:9All these were the sons of David, in addition to the sons of the concubines; and Tamar was their sister.
1 Chronicles 1:32The sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine: she bore Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.
1 Chronicles 2:46Ephah, Caleb’s concubine, bore Haran, Moza, and Gazez; and Haran became the father of Gazez.
1 Chronicles 2:48Maacah, Caleb’s concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah.
1 Chronicles 7:14The sons of Manasseh: Asriel, whom his concubine the Aramitess bore. She bore Machir the father of Gilead.
2 Chronicles 11:21Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines; for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and became the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.
2 Chronicles 11:21Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines; for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and became the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.