And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they 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.
- KJV And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their 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.
- 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 you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.
- Deut 7:3–4neither shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son.
- 1 Kgs 11:1–5Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;
- Neh 13:23–27In those days I also saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab;
- Ezra 9:11–12which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land, to which you go to possess it, is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their filthiness.
- Ezek 16:3and say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite. An Amorite was your father, and your mother was a 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.