Genesis 34:9

9 And make ye marriages with us: give your daughters to us, and take 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 And the sons of Jacob came from the field when they heard [it]: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel, in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done.

8 And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you give her to him for a wife.

9 And make ye marriages with us: give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to you.

10 And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein.

11 And Shechem said to her father, and to her brethren, Let me find favor in your eyes, and what ye shall say to me, I will give.