The KJV, NKJV, AMP, 21st Century KJV, American Standard, Darby, New American Standard, and Young’s Literal Translation all translate it as multiply.
Your analogy of a fence and a gate is a bad analogy. The correct form would be your father telling you not to go very far into the woods because you will get lost. There is no problem going up to the tree line. You can even go a short distance into the woods, but the further you go, the greater the chances of the consequences of getting lost will occur. There is no prohibition on marrying one wife or two or three. The prohibition is against “a lot”.
In fact, the Common English version translates it as “numerous” and the Contemporary English version translates it to “a lot”.
Further, even if taken literally, and even if the assumption is that multiply means more than one, the law applies to the King. No other person is stated as being bound by that passage.
So once again, King David, which the Bible said was a man after God’s heart, .... how many wives and concubines did he have?
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
Eve's statement has always intrigued me.
1. How'd she know WHERE it was, and,
2. Did she make up the touching part? or did Adam try to help GOD out and add a little to the command?
#1...you do admit, then, that your statement in post #18 was overbroad. You said:
There is no scripture that forbids having more than one wife. [post #18]
There are Biblical boundaries you (now) concede for wife accumulation (otherwise known as polygamy ... poly = accumulative; wife = gamy).
King David, which the Bible said was a man after God’s heart, .... how many wives and concubines did he have?
Hosea was told by God to marry Gomer...and Gomer retained her "cottage industry" of prostitution post-marriage.
You're not suggesting that because of the above two Biblical characters, that we have no Biblical prohibitions vs either...
...accumulating wives...
...accumulating concubines...
...or men marrying prostitutes who retain their "cottage industry"...
...and therefore no Biblically moral boundaries exist that would pre-empt taking on such bed partners...
...are you?
There is no prohibition on marrying one wife or two or three. The prohibition is against “a lot”.
You know, I looked real hard. I really tried. But try as I might, I don't see the numbers of "two" "three" "four" "five" or "six" (or higher) in Deut. 17:17.
Hmmm... Nice reading into the text.
Tell me, why did you stop at three?
Wasn't that just as arbitrary as including "four?"
And where does the magic number pop up that delineates a clear line to you?
And why do you draw it there but not elsewhere -- either in wife totals or gold and silver hoarding?
Since Deut. 17:17 also mentions hoarding gold and silver, isn't your legalistic attempt to draw the line post-3 a bit like reading into the text that $100,000 worth of gold and silver is "A-OK" but "$101,000" is excess???
I'm sorry, but if you tried your eisegetic approach to gold and silver based only upon Deut. 17:17
-- and started spitting out actual "poly" $numbers that were supposedly Deut. 17:17 sanctioned and other numbers that weren't --
-- you would be laughed out of any association of exegetes.
Ya wanna either (a) try again; or (b) if not, start floating some mystical amounts of how much gold & silver is "A-OK" based upon your rather loose interpretation of Deut. 17:17??? (Perhaps you have some kind of urim & thummim thing that spits out numbers I just don't have access to)
And don't go bailing out on me now -- now that you've gone this far. After all, you seemed just fine reaching back into v. 16 when horses seemed at first glance to justify your "multiply" angle; but given that the same word also is used for gold and silver in v.17, I guess I'm anxious now to see what kind of real numbers you're gonna float on gold & silver accumulative values...your next post could be real entertaining.
Let's go to the bottom line: If you and I agree that the key is what leads the man's heart astray...
...then isn't even that possible for a man who's added a second wife?
Even if you don't read an absolute of "no plural wives" within Deut. 17:17, are you going to legalistically conclude that Deut. 17:17 could never apply to a government leader who already has a wife?
If that second wife leads his heart astray, and we agree on that, then for you to suddenly shift away from that point
-- which was, btw, the key point you made in post #29
-- this would be a rather odd breakaway that moves you in the opposite direction of your key point in that post...would it not be?
A reminder to what you said in post #29: You said: The reason for not multiplying wives is not a prohibition on polygamy. The reason is to prevent from being led astray.
Your sudden exact numbers game just seems to militate against this point of yours.