Genesis 34:9

9 Intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us and we'll give our daughters to you.

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 Meanwhile Jacob's sons on their way back from the fields heard what had happened. They were outraged, explosive with anger. Shechem's rape of Jacob's daughter was intolerable in Israel and not to be put up with.

8 Hamor spoke with Jacob and his sons, "My son Shechem is head over heels in love with your daughter - give her to him as his wife.

9 Intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us and we'll give our daughters to you.

10 Live together with us as one family. Settle down among us and make yourselves at home. Prosper among us."

11 Shechem then spoke for himself, addressing Dinah's father and brothers: "Please, say yes. I'll pay anything.