I have never understood why a man would more than one wife....
You and me both. Can you imagine? Then have soke children all at the same time with them? What a howling mess.
Plenty of men in the USA have had more than one wife. Newt Gingrich comes to mind. So does Rush Limbaugh. Regardless of any other arguments the Bible is clear that both of these conservative icons are either polygamous or adulterous. You pick.
The hypocrisy here is that our society is just fine with these men and it's also just fine with Charlie Sheen and Hugh Hefner who practiced polygamy openly and brazenly. But if a man commits to his women instead of treating them like whores or just abandoning them when they no longer suit his tastes, well, that's a problem.
And don't get me started on the legions of black men who openly practice taxpayer-subsidized polygamy while no one says a word about it lest they be called 'racist'.
All of the aforementioned men have more than one wife even if they are not formally married to each of them at the same time.
That said, I have a hard time with condemning the men who want more than one woman and who commit to taking care of them all.