Let’s look at another frequently misquoted passage of scripture. Genesis 2:24 says: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
The Pentateuch was written a long time AFTER Adam and Eve. Verses 21, 22, and 23 are specific to Adam and how Eve originated from his body. Verse 24 starts with the word “Therefore, or As Such.” The reference is Strong’s H3651. It is a transition from the illustration of the relationship before, and how it relates to the time of Moses and the revelation of The Pentateuchal Law.
Verse 24 was NOT referring to Adam and Eve as an example of monogamy, it was explaining how, in their culture, a man and his women were to be “glued” for life. It was about men and women breeding and creating an immutable line of inheritance with women being the property of men.
Now, let’s dive into that passage word by word, looking at the Hebrew using Strong’s Numbers and the Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon.
Therefore (H3651, it means ‘surely thus’ or ‘after that’. This word refers to the preceding verses 21,22,and 23.) shall a man (H376, Masculine emphatic absolute noun, One Singular Man) leave (H5800, to remove himself and leave behind) his father (H1) and his mother, (H517) (this statement indicates that he has left the household of his parents to start his own, starting his own household would only happen once.) and shall cleave (H1692, to stay with permanently, glued.) unto his wife: (H802, woman belonging to a man. Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon says of the word represented as Strong’s Number H802: אִשָּׁה (1) A woman of every age and condition, whether married or not. In Hebrew this is an irregular plural female noun, meaning it is the same in singular as in multiple. In Leviticus 18, the form of this noun says, ‘one of your father’s wives’ (not your mother, that would be a different word.) In Gensis 30:4 the form is translated ‘concubine.’
An example of an irregular plural form in English is the word ‘Deer.’ You might say, “I saw a deer today.” Someone else might ask, “How many deer did you see.” In English, the word wife is an emphatic absolute noun. In Hebrew the word translated into wife is not, it is like saying ‘deer.’ Strong’s Definitions clarifies that this word is “often unexpressed in English”, meaning that the exact implications of its use is ambiguous in English but specific in Hebrew, it is often implied without being specifically stated. It is significant that the writer did not choose to use the noun in a manner that would construe it as being specifically limited. For instance, in Genesis 2:23 the word ‘man’ has a suffix ‘N added to indicate that it is ‘emphatic absolute’. In Genesis 2:24 he did not use that suffix; he chose the irregular which specifically does not limit the statement to a single woman, in fact according to Strong’s it includes the implication of ‘each and every.’) and they shall be one (H259, an ordinal adjective. Ordinal signifies a position in a sequence. In Hebrew this means first of each) flesh. (H1320, a masculine noun, literally ‘his family,’ as in blood relations or genetic family. In this specific case, it says ‘Shall combine their genitals and create his family.’)
It does not limit the relationship, it describes them mating and starting the man’s offspring. Inheritance is through the man, not the woman. Again, I am not debating modern concepts, I am describing Hebrew culture.
So, when we view this in Hebrew without trying to tie each word to an English word, which forces misinterpretations, but rather focusing on the meanings, it says: Thus (or as such), a man leaves the household of his parents and begins his own genetic family with a first woman and they are then considered immediate family (genetic, blood). From that point they are permanently joined and they will unite their genitals and begin a new family.
That is the literal meaning of Genesis 2:24.
Not only is there nothing that limits the use of this phrase to a single woman, but by the use of an irregular plural female noun rather than an emphatic absolute form, and the ordinal adjective ‘one’, it is also explicitly implied that there would or could be more than one, as in ‘each and every’ time such a union happens.