What Does Exodus 34:16 Mean in the King James?
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.
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 shared root behind “go a whoring” makes worship a form of intimate fidelity, so the verse describes allegiance as something a household bond can redirect.
THE MEANING
The verse presents marriage as a channel through which allegiance moves: the daughters follow their gods and draw the sons after them. It explicitly names the daughters as agents of that turning, showing how a shared bond can reshape a household’s worship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that marriage can remain separate from worship and leave a household’s allegiance untouched.
THE ROOT
וְזָנוּ
wə-zānû
GROWS FROM
זנה
To commit sexual unfaithfulness; to prostitute oneself.
“go a whoring” in this verse is wə-zānû. One Hebrew verb carries both turns: the daughters commit sexual unfaithfulness, and a causative form makes them the agents who lead the sons into the same unfaithfulness after other gods. By using the language of sexual betrayal for worship, the verse makes religious allegiance a matter of intimacy and fidelity within a household.
ALSO GROWS
zōnāh: A woman who prostitutes herself or is sexually unfaithful.
זֹנָה
This feminine form shares the root’s consonants and names the sexual betrayal behind the verse’s image.
zōneh: A man who is sexually unfaithful.
זֹנֶה
This masculine form shares the same root, joining the daughters’ unfaithfulness and the sons’ induced unfaithfulness within one word-family.
THE PATTERN
Allegiance travels through close bonds, reshaping a household’s worship and the conduct of those within it.
For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.THE THREAD
The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.Hosea uses זָנָה (zānâ, “to commit sexual unfaithfulness”) for a land turning from the LORD, the same root that carries Exodus’s household warning. The word moves from intimate betrayal to collective allegiance, showing the shared metaphor at a wider scale.
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