Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease.
Parallel translations
- WEB Take wives, and father sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there, and don’t be diminished.
- KJV Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
- NKJV Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished.
- NASB Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may give birth to sons and daughters; and grow in numbers there and do not decrease.
- NLT Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God instructs the exiles to marry, have children, and multiply in Babylon. Life and covenant continuity are to go on even in exile.
Overview
By forming families and increasing in number, the exiles would preserve the covenant community through the long captivity. This was an act of hope, trusting that God had a future for His people. It countered despair that might have led them to give up on life and lineage. God's command to flourish in exile reflects His ongoing purpose to bring forth the promised seed, ultimately fulfilled in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Judg 12:9He had thirty sons, as well as thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage to men outside his clan; and for his sons he brought back thirty wives from elsewhere. Ibzan judged Israel seven years.
- Gen 28:1–4So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. “Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” he commanded.
- Gen 24:51Rebekah is here before you. Take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, just as the LORD has decreed.”
- Gen 21:21And while he was dwelling in the Wilderness of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
- Gen 29:19Laban replied, “Better that I give her to you than to another. Stay here with me.”
- Gen 24:3–4and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,
- 1 Tim 5:14So I advise the younger widows to marry, have children, and manage their households, denying the adversary occasion for slander.
- Jer 16:2–4“You must not marry or have sons or daughters in this place.”
- 1 Cor 7:36–38However, if someone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward his betrothed, and if she is beyond her youth and they ought to marry, let him do as he wishes; he is not sinning; they should get married.
- Judg 1:12–14And Caleb said, “To the man who strikes down Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage.”
- Judg 14:2So he returned and told his father and mother, “I have seen a daughter of the Philistines in Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife.”
- Gen 9:7But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it.”
- Gen 34:4So Shechem told his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as a wife.”
- Gen 1:27–28So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- Gen 24:60And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 29:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.