Pilegesh Hebrew: פִּילֶגֶשׁ is the Hebrew term for the concubine, a marital companion of social together with legal status inferior to that of a wife. Among the Israelites, men normally acknowledged their concubines, in addition to such women enjoyed the same rights in the business as legitimate wives.
Several biblical figures had concubines when they were not professionals to have natural children with their wives. The most famous example of this was with Abraham and Sarah. Sarah provided her maidservant Hagar to Abraham while maintaining ownership of both maidservant and offspring. Their union submission Ishmael. Hagar gained the status of full wife in regards to Abraham, but nonetheless Sarah retained the status of main wife. This type of pilegesh is recorded in Jewish rule as being a singular case. all later cases of pilegesh recognized the pilegesh and guaranteed similar rights in the multinational as the legitimate wife.
Since having children in Judaism was considered a great blessing, legitimate wives often gave their maids to their husbands so they could create children with them when those women themselves were childless, as in the cases of Leah and Zilpah and Rachel and Bilhah. The concubine commanded the same respect and inviolability as the wife, and it was regarded as the deepest dishonor for the man to whom she belonged whether hands were laid upon her. Even in the exceptional issue of Sarah and Hagar, Abraham would have been obligated to treat Hagar as a full wife and she would have been treated as an survive by Abraham. Sarah's rights would have been regarding the technical legal status of being considered the inheritor and since the other wife and offspring would have been hers by ownership she became the legal albeit not biological mother of Ishmael.