what is a concubine

A concubine is a woman who lives with a man as if she were a wife, but without having the same status as a wife. In the Bible, a concubine was a woman acquired by a man as a secondary wife. Her purpose was to provide a male heir in the case of a barren wife, to provide more children in general to enhance the family’s workforce and wealth, and to satisfy the man’s sexual desires. In early Israelite history during patriarchal times, the period of the judges, and the early monarchy, concubines were used to provide a male heir for a barren wife and to cement political alliances between nations. While concubines did not have the same status as wives, they were not to be mistreated nor could they be violated by other males with impunity. The term "concubine" comes from the Latin concubina and concubinus, terms that in Roman law meant "one who lives unmarried with a married man or woman". In some Western countries, concubinage is used as a gender-neutral legal term to refer to cohabitation, including cohabitation between same-sex partners.