pilegesh · concubine

What it means

pilegesh (פִּילֶגֶשׁ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “concubine”.

A woman joined to a man in a recognized way, but with fewer rights than the main wife. It was a custom of the time that the Bible tells without making it a model.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. A woman joined to a man, with fewer rights than the wife.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• concubine ×22
• concubines ×15

Where it appears

• Genesis×4
• Judges×12
• 2 Samuel×9
• 1 Kings×1
• 1 Chronicles×5
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Esther×1
• Song of Songs×2
• Ezekiel×1

• Genesis 22:24

  And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

• Genesis 25:6

  But to the sons of the concubines that were Abraham’s, Abraham gave gifts, and he sent them away from Isaac his son, while he was still alive, eastward, to the land of the east.

• Genesis 35:22

  While Israel was dwelling 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 36:12

  Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son, and she bore to Eliphaz Amalek. These are the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife.

• Judges 8:31

  His concubine who was in Shechem she also bore him a son, and he gave him the name Abimelech.

• Judges 19:1

  And it happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a man, a Levite, residing as an alien in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, and he took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem of Judah.

• Judges 19:2

  But his concubine prostituted herself against him and went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem of Judah, and she was there for some time, four months.

• Judges 19:9

  And the man arose to go, he and his concubine and his young man; but his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, said to him, “Look, please, the day has waned toward evening; spend the night, please. Look, the day is ending; spend the night here, and let your heart be merry; and tomorrow you can rise early for your journey and go to your tent.”

• Judges 19:10

  But the man was not willing to spend the night; he arose and went and came as far as opposite Jebus, that is Jerusalem; and with him were a pair of saddled donkeys, and his concubine was with him.

• Judges 19:24

  Look, my daughter, the virgin, and his concubine: let me bring out them and humiliate them and do to them what is good in your eyes; but to this man do not do the deed of this infamy.”

• Judges 19:25

  But the men were not willing to listen to him. So the man took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them outside; and they knew her and abused her all night until the morning, and they let her go as the dawn came up.

• Judges 19:27

  And her master arose in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way; and look, the woman, his concubine, was fallen at the entrance of the house, with her hands on the threshold.

• Judges 19:29

  And he came to his house and took the knife, and took hold of his concubine and cut her into pieces by her bones into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.

• Judges 20:4

  And the man, the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered and said, “I and my concubine came to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, to spend the night.

• Judges 20:5

  And the lords of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house around me at night. Me they intended to kill, and my concubine they humiliated, and she died.

• Judges 20:6

  So I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the field of the inheritance of Israel, for they have committed infamy and vileness in Israel.

• 2 Samuel 3:7

  Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah; and Ish-bosheth said to Abner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”

• 2 Samuel 5:13

  David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David.

• 2 Samuel 15:16

  The king went out, and all his household after him, and the king left ten women, concubines, to keep the house.

• 2 Samuel 16:21

  Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines, whom he left to keep the house; and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”

• 2 Samuel 16:22

  So they pitched for Absalom the tent on the roof, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the eyes of all Israel.

• 2 Samuel 19:5

  Joab came to the king in the house and said, “Today you have shamed the faces of all your servants, who today have saved your life and the life of your sons and your daughters, and the life of your wives and the life of your concubines,

• 2 Samuel 20:3

  David came to his house in Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women, the concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in a house under guard; he provided for them, but to them he did not go in. So they were shut up until the day of their death, in widowhood for life.

• 2 Samuel 21:11

  David was told what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.

• 1 Kings 11:3

  And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives inclined his heart.

• 1 Chronicles 1:32

  And the sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine: she bore Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.

• 1 Chronicles 2:46

  And Ephah, Caleb’s concubine, bore Haran, Moza, and Gazez; and Haran fathered Gazez.

• 1 Chronicles 2:48

  Maacah, Caleb’s concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah.

• 1 Chronicles 3:9

  All these were the sons of David, besides the sons of the concubines; and Tamar was their sister.

• 1 Chronicles 7:14

  The sons of Manasseh: Asriel, whom his concubine, the Aramean, bore; she bore Machir the father of Gilead.

• 2 Chronicles 11:21

  Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and his concubines, for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

• Esther 2:14

  In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second house of the women, under the hand of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, keeper of the concubines; she would not go in again to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was called by name.

• Song of Songs 6:8

  They are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and young women without number.

• Song of Songs 6:9

  Unique is she, my dove, my perfect one, unique is she to her mother, pure is she to the one who bore her. The girls saw her and called her happy, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.

• Ezekiel 23:20

  And she was infatuated with their concubines, whose flesh is the flesh of donkeys, and whose flow is the flow of horses.

And 2 more times.