What Bible verse is there that says what you were saying Moses said?
I quoted Job in a post above. One other translation for that is that he said he made a covenant that he would not look lustfully upon a virgin. Virgins were generally young women.
You seem to maybe be conflating seeing that a woman is attractive with lusting after her. They are not the same thing of course.
Agree to that!
Do you refer to this bit: "When a man looks at a single woman and finds her attractive, that would never be adultery in the definition of the Law of Moses, regardless of his previous marriage status." ?
Assuming that is the case I would make the following observations:
- in Mosaic Law, adultery happens ONLY when a betrothed or married women has sex with a man not her husband: Leviticus 18:20, Leviticus 20:10 - and of course Exodus 20:14+17. (coveting a married woman is sin, but not coveting or desiring to marry a still single woman; and by extension so is 'looking' at a single woman and finding her attractive not a sin; regardless the marital status of a man).
Several Mosaic laws regulate or even command polygamy:
- Levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-10): a man had to marry the widow of his brother if she was childless before; whether he was already married himself was irrelevant for the Law; he just would taken the widow has his 2nd or 3rd wife. Observe how the text tells us it would be a disgrace/bad if the man would refuse to marry her.
- Exodus 21:10: if a man takes another wife, he should not reduce food, shelter and sex for the previous one (this implies polygamy, and sets the rules for fairness: if you can't afford that 2nd wife, don't marry her)
- Deuteronomy 21:15
If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.
(this also simply assume a polygamous society without even frowning upon it - the Law just makes sure the rights of the firstborn is protected.)
All of that taken together (including the famous verses of 2 Samuel 12:7-8), the fact that Israel as a nation was built-up from Jacob and his 2 wives + 2 concubines, etc. illustrates a society where polygamy never was regarded as sin, but was just assumed to be present in society - it just came with certain rules. A marriage is a treaty, so the rights of a woman in that treaty never should be violated in case her husband would marry another woman.
(I saw your previous post at a later moment, so that's why I felt it still would be good to respond to that; I hope that's OK)
