I would speculate that polygamy was one of the things God tolerated in His Saints, but did not necessarily condone. I believe that God's original design for the institution of marriage was when He made Eve for Adam. Never is there mentioned more than one wife for Adam, nor did he have a special friend named Steve. Eve was made as a helpmeet for Adam. To complete him, and be his companion. Adam loved Eve, because she was part of him, and created to be his companion and helper, and was literally of his flesh. God didn't make him more than one wife.

There is precedent for God tolerating things but not condoning them in the Bible. In the case of divorce.

Matthew 19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

Notice the last 8 words of the verse. Divorce was not part of God's plan for us, but it was tolerated.

Polygamy is one of many things the patriarchs did that the Bible does not condone. The Bible nowhere explicitly forbids polygamy, but I am unaware of any passage that says anything good about it. As another post points out, the New Testament instructs anyone chosen for the office of "overseer," "deacon" or "elder" of a church should be "the husband of but one wife" (1 Tim 3:2, 3:12, Titus 1:6 NIV & NASB) making that situation pretty clearly preferred.

In the New Testament it does refer to men being able to leave his parents but cling onto his wife (singular) and then they become one body, so it's saying that A man and A woman join in holy matrimony and no more.
Also it refers to the necessary qualities of a bishop, one of which is having only one partner. So if the holiest of poeple can only have one partner then surely that is a guide of how the rest of us should live. However before the New Testament it doesn't specifically condemn polygamy.

Ethernium: Whether I agree with the scripture or not is immaterial. I have merely answered the question of what the Bible says on the subject at hand.

In the old testament there are examples of men with multiple wives. God did not expressly forbid multiple wives; but, he did desire that men have only one wife.(Dt17:17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray...) This verse is for the king but you can apply it to regular men too. All of the patriarchs had more than one wife or at least a wife and a concubine or slave girl who bore them children. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) and his son's. In the new testament we are told to have only one wife.( Corinthians 7:1-2 1 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. 2 But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.)

The multiple wife situation was a tribal situtaion to obtain power by force to defend ones tribe & family against the many enemies against Israel or the Israeli Jewish people at the time...

If you want an idea about marriage look up 1 Timothy 3:2 about a Bishops office... Most people could only handle one wife... BACK THEN....

Polygamy strictly speaking covers both polyandry (one wife several husbands) and polygyny (one husband several wives). However, in common usage the word polygamy usually implies polygyny. As you say many Biblical prophets had more than one wife, Solomon, according to the Bible, had 1000 (700 wives and 300 concubines). This rule of strict monogamy which appears to be regarded as very sacred amongst the vast majority of Christians does not appear to be in the Bible. Apparently, like the trinity, it is an import from Roman and other influences. Since in Islam marriages are regarded as contracts between two parties the Holy Qur’an (HQ) does not lay down hard and fast rules in this area. However, while permitting polygyny, because of the social benefits that it can bring, the HQ specifies certain rules and conditions to regulate it. (Some of these benefits apparently led church leaders and states to make exceptions to their strict monogamy rules allowing, in one state, men to marry up to ten wives each.) One of the HQ rules limits the number of wives to four while one condition states that the wives must be treated equally. It warns those who might want to rush into such arrangements that treating the wives equally is not easy and advises people to stick to one wife, which by and large is the norm in the Muslim world.

Yeshua also said that in the last days there would be forbidding of marriage. What do you think forbidding marriage to more than one wife constitutes. If the marriage partners choose to be married legally in the eyes of the Creator of Heaven and earth, why should they be penalized by man when God does not condemn them? Who has a heaven or hell to put you in - - God or man. Who would you listen to and obey?
BiBiRaRi

One of my earlier posts explained that there is a growth, development, progression in the Bible. What held for the OT/Hebrew Scriptures did not hold for the New in some areas, marriage being one. Slavery was NOT condemned by Jesus or Paul, but the Church came slowly to see that slavery was in conflict with human dignity and so the dark glasses came off and eventually slavery as institution was dropped- it still exists today if one looks at the sub-human wages paid by huge corporations to minimum wage folks who are exhausted, irritable and cannot be present to spouse or child(ren) OR are abandoned by the other spouse because it is culturally acceptable to say "divorce is okay" without calling one to accept responsibility for child-rearing, support and the rest, but the single parent must work two jobs to pay the basics or a couple cannot make it on slave wage pay! It helps to see one change like that to see how we came to understand human disgnity and its implications for marriage and other topics.

Was it not speculation by the Jews that turned them against Jesus? Did not David have multiple wives? Does not the Bible say that David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and HAD NOT FAILED to keep any of the LORD's commands all the days of his life?except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. (1 Kings 15:5)
Are you no different than the Jews in persecuting God according to the laws and ordinances created by mere men?
To say to a man it is good to have only one wife is proper. But, will you not bring judgement upon yourself by dealing judgement that is not in accordance with the Word of God?
Do you not fear God? Is it not written in Revelation 22:18, "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book."
If you fear the Lord God of David, will you continue adding speculation to man's burden?

Obviously not, at least in what is known to Christians as the Old Testament...