And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
Parallel translations
- WEB They took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods.
- BSB And they took the daughters of these people in marriage, gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
- NKJV And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.
- NASB and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
- NLT and they intermarried with them. Israelite sons married their daughters, and Israelite daughters were given in marriage to their sons. And the Israelites served their gods.
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
Israel intermarries with these nations and serves their gods. It matters as the very compromise God had warned would ensnare them.
Overview
Israel takes and gives daughters in marriage to the pagan nations and adopts their idolatry, exactly the snare God foretold. Intermarriage led to shared worship of false gods. This fulfills the warning of chapter two and shows how unholy alliances draw God's people into idolatry, a danger Scripture consistently warns against.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Exod 34:16And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
- Deut 7:3–4Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
- 1 Kgs 11:1–5But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;
- Neh 13:23–27In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
- Ezra 9:11–12Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness.
- Ezek 16:3And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.
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Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 3:6 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.