Marriage (the concept)

In Jewish teaching, marriage , is the ideal human state and is considered a basic social institution established by God at the time of creation.

In the Bible. The purposes of marriage and procreation: “It is not good that the man should be alone ; I will make him a help meet for him… Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen.18, 24 ); and “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth…” Gen. 1:28
The biblical conception of marriage is essentially monogamous (Gen. 2:24), and although in biblical times polygamy was common among the upper classes (Judg. 8:30 II Sam. 5:13; I Kings 11:1-8), the many references to marriage in the Wisdom literature seem to take it for granted that a man had only one wife (Ps. 128; Prov. 12:4 ; 18:22 ; 19:14 ; 31:10-31; Ecclus. 25:1; 26) The Prophets, using marriage as a metaphor for God’s attachment to Israel (Isa. 61:10; 62:5 ; Eza. 16 ; Hos. 2:21-22; also song of songs, if interpreted metaphorically clearly have monogamous marriage in mind, since God did not enter into such a special relationship with any other people.