Deuteronomy 7:3

3 Don't marry them: Don't give your daughters to their sons and don't take their daughters for your sons -

Deuteronomy 7:3 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 7:3

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them
Unless they became proselytes, as Rahab, who was married by Salmon, and so those of other nations, as Ruth the Moabitess, and so any captive taken in war; otherwise it was not lawful, bad consequences have followed upon it, which it is the design of this law to prevent; that is, being snared and drawn aside into idolatry, which was the case of Solomon:

thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt
thou take unto thy son;
for, according to the Targum of Jonathan, whosoever marries with them, it is as if he married with their idols: and this law, according to the Jewish writers ^F3, is binding with respect to other nations besides the seven; and whosoever marries any Heathen, of whatsoever nation, is to be beaten.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F3 Maimon. Hilchot lssure Biah, c. 12. sect. 1.

Deuteronomy 7:3 In-Context

1 When God, your God, brings you into the country that you are about to enter and take over, he will clear out the superpowers that were there before you: the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Those seven nations are all bigger and stronger than you are.

2 God, your God, will turn them over to you and you will conquer them. You must completely destroy them, offering them up as a holy destruction to God. Don't make a treaty with them. Don't let them off in any way.

3 Don't marry them: Don't give your daughters to their sons and don't take their daughters for your sons -

4 before you know it they'd involve you in worshiping their gods, and God would explode in anger, putting a quick end to you.

5 Here's what you are to do: Tear apart their altars stone by stone, smash their phallic pillars, chop down their sex-and-religion Asherah groves, set fire to their carved god-images.