A frequent misinterpretation treats Lamech's taking of two wives as an endorsement or divine allowance for polygamy, ignoring its contextual role as a descriptive marker of escalating sinfulness in Cain's rebellious lineage rather than prescriptive guidance; it is wrongly used to justify modern polygamous practices, overlooking the Bible's consistent portrayal of monogamy as the ideal and polygamy as fraught with conflict and divine disfavor.
Genesis 4:19
King James Version (1769)
19 And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
Genesis 4:19 introduces Lamech, a descendant of Cain, as the first biblical figure to practice polygamy by marrying two wives, Adah and Zillah, illustrating a further departure from God's original design for marriage as one man with one wife from Genesis 2:24 and signaling the deepening moral corruption in Cain's ungodly line amid humanity's early spread.