An interesting question about polygamy is what the Jews think about it. It is sometimes asserted that God commanded the patriarchs to be polygamists.
From a Jewish perspective, what does the Bible teach about polygamy? Here is a quote from the book Biblical literacy: the most important people, events, and ideas of the Hebrew Bible by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin (pages 410-414).
Biblical law permits a man to have more than one wife (Deuteronomy 21:17); indeed many of the Bible's most prominent figures (e.g., Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon) practiced polygamy. Since polygamy was permitted throughout the ancient Near East, this should come as no surprise. What is significant, however, is that biblical narrative, as opposed to biblical law, depicts multiple marriages as almost always leading to multiple miseries.
Abraham takes a concubine-wife because of his wife Sarah's barrenness. Indeed, it is at Sarah's insistence that he takes her servant Hagar as a wife, for, as Sarah tells him: "Perhaps I shall have a son through her" (Genesis 16:2). When Hagar becomes pregnant, she starts treating Sarah with contempt. Sarah blames Abraham for Hagar's arrogance and Abraham, wishing to avoid marital conflict, tells his wife to treat Hagar as she wishes...
Some years later, Sarah finally gives birth to her own son, whereupon she forces Abraham to expel Hagar and Ishamel. Sarah speaks of hagar in the most contemptuous of tones: "Cast out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac."...
[A few pages of details about other biblical references to polygamy]
...Are there any happy polygamous marriages described in the Bible? No, although sometimes we are given no information about a marriage, so we have no way of knowing whether or not it was happy (for example, see Lamech, the Bible's first polygamist [Genesis 4:19,23]).
In those instances, however, where the text does supply details about a polygamous marriage, it either is miserable for at least one partner (Hagar and Leah), creates hatred between the children (Joseph and his brothers, David's sons), or wreaks havoc with the husband's character (Solomon).
There is yet one further indication that the Bible's preference is for "one man, one wife." When God created the world, he populates it with only two people, one of each sex. He could have given Adam a second wife but doesn't. Furthermore, the Bible's very first reference to marriage presupposes a state of monogamy: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, so that they become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).
Why, then, does the Bible permit polygamy?
The nature of biblical law generally is evolutionary rather than revolutionary (except when it comes to uprooting idolatry, with which the Bible refuses to brook any compromise). To have categorically outlawed multiple marriages in a world where they were widely practiced would most likely have lead to an increase in adulterous affairs, or to affairs with unmarried women to whom the men would have no obligations. Better, therefore, for a man to have several wives, to each of whom he has legal obligations.
However, by depicting in considerable detail the misery generated within these marriages, biblical narrative makes it clear that it is far better for a man to have only one wife. As we shall see in other instances (e.g., the laws favoring the firstborn son versus the narratives favoring the younger sons; see entry 201), biblical narrative ultimately influences Jewish life more than biblical law. The Talmud, compiled during the early centuries of the Common Era, lists well over one thousand rabbis. We know of none who practiced polygamy. During the tenth century, a rabbinic ban was issued outlawing polygamy for all Jews living in Europe. There is little question that the rabbis felt their act was in consonance with the Bible’s ethical spirit. This ban, uniformly accepted in Jewish life today, represents perhaps the most dramatic victory of biblical narrative over biblical law.
So according to Jewish thought, monogamy is preferred by God, while in certain polygamist cultures, polygamy might be permitted because at least it sets up some legal obligations for the man to take care of the women he’d be sleeping with anyway.
How does Mormon polygamy compare and contrast to this?
Here are a few thoughts:
1- In Mormonism, polygamy is commanded to raise up righteous seed. In contrast, the Bible teaches that polygamy creates misery, hatred, and havoc on the character of those involved? Of all systems, God would use this one to raise up a righteous seed?
2- In Joseph Smith’s version of polygamy, the unions were a spiritual and sometimes physical union with post-mortal implications, but it created no legal recognition or legal obligation on the part of the husband. In contrast, according to Jewish thought the only reason to permit polygamy is to create legal obligation.
3- In Mormonism, polygamy was commanded by God to be introduced into a Monogamous culture. In the Bible, Polygamy is merely permitted in its polygamous culture.
4- In Mormonism, multiple wives tended to lead to multiple miseries, just as in the Bible.