Genesis 34:9

9 "Let your people and ours get married to each other. Give us your daughters as our wives. You can have our daughters as your wives.

Genesis 34:9 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 34:9

And make ye marriages with us
There was no objection on their side, it lay on the other; Abraham's servant was charged by him not to take a wife of the Canaanites to his son Isaac; and the same charge was given Jacob by Isaac, ( Genesis 24:3 ) ( 28:1 ) ; and therefore Jacob would never agree that his children should marry any of that nation; and marriages with them were afterwards forbidden by the law of Moses, ( Deuteronomy 7:3 ) ;

[and] give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you;
for though at present there were no other daughters in Jacob's family, yet there might be hereafter; and the request is, that for the future there might be intermarriages between them, as would be practicable in a course of time.

Genesis 34:9 In-Context

7 Jacob's sons had come in from the fields. They came as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with sadness and anger. Shechem had done a very terrible thing. He had forced Jacob's daughter to have sex with him. He had done something that should never be done in Israel.

8 But Hamor said to them, "My son Shechem wants your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife.

9 "Let your people and ours get married to each other. Give us your daughters as our wives. You can have our daughters as your wives.

10 You can settle among us. Here is the land. Live in it. Trade in it. Buy property in it."

11 Then Shechem spoke to Dinah's father and brothers. He said, "I want to please you. I'll give you anything you ask.