If you wanted a wife in the OT, you paid a "bride price" for her. She received this and kept it as her insurance ever after. She was expected to invest her "mohar", manage it, use it to buy fields, spin cloth, and do Proverbs 31 stuff. It was sort of like having her own separate bank account. And remember, a wife lived in her own separate tent. (Note: I'm not saying marriage should still work like this; I'm just pointing out the way it used to be.)
A concubine is simply a wife who never received a bride-price. She has no separate bank account, no independent source of income, no insurance, no protection in times of danger. Concubine = wife with no mohar. A second-class wife, if you will.
My brother Evan today suggested that perhaps we could think of Canaan as Israel's "mohar." God chooses a wife for Himself, not a concubine. Accordingly, he provides a bride-price: a land full of vineyards, flowing with milk and honey. God gives Israel her own bank account.
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