What Does Nehemiah 10:30 Mean in the King James?
And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons:
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 vow blocks the exchange in both directions, showing that a household is shaped by what it gives and what it takes in.
THE MEANING
A community’s commitments take shape in the households it forms: both giving daughters outward and taking daughters inward are refused here. The paired clauses make the boundary reciprocal and place the community’s future within its intimate bonds.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that marriage is only private and leaves communal identity untouched; this vow locates a community’s continuity in the household bonds it forms.
THE ROOT
נִתֵּן
nittēn
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, put, or set in place.
The root lets “give” carry the sense of placing something into a relationship or setting. Paired with the refusal to take, it reveals a boundary that governs both directions of household formation.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
The shared root makes the act of giving in the verse resonate with what is placed into another’s hands or household.
netinah: Giving or donation.
נְתִינָה
This form keeps the focus on the act of giving, which the vow refuses in this relationship.
נִקַּח
niqqaḥ
GROWS FROM
לקח
To take or receive.
“take” in this verse is niqqaḥ. The root names receiving as an active entry into a bond. The verse pairs that entry with giving, making the boundary mutual rather than one-sided.
ALSO GROWS
leqaḥ: Teaching or instruction; something received.
לֶקַח
This related noun carries the sense of taking something in, echoing the verse’s concern with what enters a household.
laqach ishah: To take a wife.
לָקַח אִשָּׁה
This Hebrew usage shows how the verb can describe entering marriage, the bond at the center of the verse.
THE PATTERN
The bonds that join households also shape the loyalties and commitments a community carries forward.
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.For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.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
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.Deuteronomy uses the same Hebrew roots for “give” (נתן) and “take” (לקח), making the reciprocal structure explicit. Nehemiah’s vow gathers that same boundary into a communal commitment.
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