The spirit of God moves. The serpent questions. Men multiply and take. The more men multiply, the more men take, and the more men take, the more men multiply. In these verses, men are taking multiple wives. Verse one states that men were multiplying on the face of the earth; they were increasing the population of this planet. Men were monogamous up until Genesis 6 (except for Lamech, Gen. 4:19, who was the first man recorded to take for himself two wives). Monogamy did nothing to hinder a population explosion.
What was the allure for taking more than one wife? Women's beauty. More women equals more beautiful women. Beautiful things are oft times coveted after, lusted after, and sometimes taken from their rightful owners. These "fair" women were "daughters of men." They had fathers who raised them, mothers who succored them, families who loved them. But they were taken, perhaps against their wills, to become a possession, not a just wife. "They took them wives of all which they chose."
Who took them? "...the sons of God..." Just as Adam was the "son of God" and took of the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," even so did the descendants of Adam, "the sons of God," take that which was forbidden, multiple wives.
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Gen. 2:24. How can three or more people in a "polygamous marriage" become one flesh?
Are we satisfied with all that God has given us?
~dkg