What is the meaning of Judges 3:6? And they took the daughters of these people in marriage Israel crossed a clear boundary laid down by the Lord. Long before they entered Canaan, God had warned, “You must not intermarry with them” (Deuteronomy 7:3). • Such marriages were not forbidden because of ethnicity but because of idolatry. Exodus 34:15-16 cautions that pagan spouses would “invite you, and you will eat of his sacrifice.” • Intermarriage signaled agreement. By accepting Canaanite brides, the men of Israel silently affirmed the values and worship practices of their new families (1 Kings 11:1-4 shows the same pattern in Solomon). • This opening compromise looks small—love, family, new relationships—but it cracks the door for bigger spiritual erosion. gave their own daughters to their sons The drift now flows both ways. Israel not only receives but also offers. • Parents who once vowed at Sinai to keep covenant with Yahweh (Exodus 24:7) now surrender their daughters to pagan households. • The giving of daughters highlights Israel’s active participation; they become missionaries of compromise rather than covenant (Ezra 9:1-2, Nehemiah 13:23-27 echo the same heartbreak centuries later). • Each wedding feast becomes a tacit proclamation: “We no longer see a difference between Yahweh’s people and the nations.” and served their gods The inevitable result follows the relational compromise. • One generation’s marriage choice becomes the next generation’s worship pattern. Judges 2:11-13 already summarized, “They followed other gods… and provoked the Lord to anger.” • Service involves devotion, sacrifice, and daily life. Israel offers to Baal and Asherah what rightly belongs only to the Lord (Jeremiah 2:11-13). • The downward spiral of the book of Judges begins here: relationship → compromise → idolatry → oppression (Judges 3:7-8). summary Judges 3:6 captures a tragic three-step slide: relational compromise with unbelievers, active participation in that compromise, and full-blown idolatry. What starts with marriage ends with worship, proving that affections shape allegiance. The verse warns every generation that small concessions to a worldview opposed to God will, if unchecked, redirect the heart and invite discipline, yet also sets the stage for God’s gracious deliverance that follows in the Judges narrative. |
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