What Does Deuteronomy 7:3 Mean in the King James?
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The command makes marriage a boundary of kinship, because giving and taking a daughter binds households together.
THE MEANING
This verse draws a hard boundary around marriage: a daughter is not given to their son, and their daughter is not taken for yours. Its two directions show that the bond joins households, not only the two people who marry. The command treats that joining as a matter of belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that marriage concerns only two individuals dissolves here: the verse treats it as a bond between households.
THE ROOT
תִתְחַתֵּן
titḥatten
GROWS FROM
חתן
To become related by marriage; to enter an in-law relationship.
The verb translated “make marriages” shares its root with words for a bridegroom and a father-in-law. Hebrew frames this act as entering an in-law network, so the two clauses form one reciprocal boundary around kinship.
ALSO GROWS
ḥatan: Bridegroom; son-in-law.
חָתָן
The groom’s place in the family is named through the same root that describes the marriage bond.
ḥoten: Father-in-law.
חֹתֵן
This branch makes the new family relation visible: marriage creates kin on both sides.
ḥatunnah: Wedding; marriage.
חֲתֻנָּה
The wedding is the event that brings the households into this in-law relation.
תִּתֵּן
titten
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, or place.
“give” in this verse is titten. The verse describes the daughter as given into another household; the root also carries the sense of setting or placing. Paired with the marriage verb, this makes the transfer part of a bond that establishes new kinship.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root shows the wider language of giving carried by the verb in the verse.
netinah: Giving; an act of giving.
נְתִינָה
The branch keeps attention on the act itself: one household gives, and the marriage establishes a relation between households.
THE PATTERN
Marriage joins households, and that joined bond can carry allegiance with it.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.THE THREAD
And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.Both verses use לָקַח (lāqaḥ, “take/receive”) for bringing a daughter into a son’s household. Exodus names the allegiance consequence that Deuteronomy states in its next verse: the bond can turn sons toward other gods.
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