Lexicon

H6370 - pilegesh

Strong's: H6370 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: pee-LEH-ghesh Part of speech: feminine noun (the masculine sense "paramour" is also listed) OT occurrences: 37 times in 35 verses Derivation: uncertain; probably a non-Semitic culture-word shared around the Mediterranean, often linked to Greek pallakis and Latin paelex. The connection is a widely-cited scholarly hypothesis, not settled etymology.

Semantic range

A pilegesh is a secondary or lower-ranked wife, a recognized conjugal partner who holds a marital bond but lower legal and social standing than the primary free-born wife (Hebrew ishah). She is not a mere chattel slave: her union is marriage-like and her children can be reckoned as legitimate heirs.

Secondary wife of a patriarch or king, often given from among the household maids or taken as a bond of alliance: Bilhah and Zilpah, the handmaids of Rachel and Leah, function as concubines whose sons (Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher) become tribal patriarchs (Genesis 30; 35:22); Abraham's concubines (Genesis 25:6); Keturah is called both wife and concubine.
Royal concubines as part of a king's household, whose possession carried dynastic-political weight: Saul's concubine Rizpah (2 Samuel 3:7); David's ten concubines (2 Samuel 15:16; 16:21-22; 20:3); Solomon's many concubines (1 Kings 11:3).
The Levite's concubine of Judges 19, whose abuse at Gibeah is narrated as an outrage (nevalah) that ignites civil war.

Concubine versus slave

The theologically and apologetically important point is that pilegesh names a relationship status, not a property status. A female slave is an amah or shiphchah; a pilegesh is a wife of lower rank. A woman could be of servile origin and elevated to concubine (Hagar, Bilhah, Zilpah), but the concubine as such:

has a recognized conjugal bond (in Judges 19 the man is her "husband," her father his "father-in-law");
bears legitimate, inheriting children;
is protected by law: a slave-wife is owed food, clothing, and conjugal rights on pain of her freedom (Exodus 21:10-11), and a captive-wife may never be sold or enslaved (Deuteronomy 21:14).

"Sex slave" is therefore a category error; "lower-status wife" is accurate. See the fuller treatment in the Biblical Marriage Consent Objection Defeater.

Apologetic load

Defusing the "concubine equals sex slave" charge. Atheist objections to David's concubines (2 Samuel) or to biblical polygamy trade on collapsing pilegesh into chattel slavery. The lexical and legal data resist that collapse: the concubine is a wife of secondary rank with children and protections. See Did God Cause the Rape of Davids Wives Objection Defeater and OT Polygamy Objection Defeater.
Descriptive, not prescriptive. Concubinage is a feature of the patriarchal world the Old Testament records and consistently shows breeding strife (Hagar and Sarah; Reuben and Bilhah, Genesis 35:22; David's house), never the creational monogamy ideal of Genesis 2:24. The canonical trajectory moves away from it.
The victims are mourned, not celebrated. Where a concubine is wronged (the Levite's concubine, Judges 19; David's violated concubines, 2 Samuel 20:3), the narrator registers it as horror or tragedy, not divine approval.

Notable verses

Genesis 22:24, Nahor's concubine Reumah
Genesis 35:22, Reuben lies with Bilhah his father's concubine (a claim on succession)
Judges 19, the Levite's concubine and the outrage at Gibeah
2 Samuel 3:7, Abner and Saul's concubine Rizpah (a succession-charged act)
2 Samuel 15:16; 16:21-22; 20:3, David's ten concubines, taken publicly by Absalom, then kept as widows
1 Kings 11:3, Solomon's 300 concubines