Deuteronomy 7:3

Deu 7:3 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.

Ver. 3. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them.] As neither with any other that were idolatots. {Ezr 9:1-2}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 7:3. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them — From this prohibition it has been justly inferred that the Canaanites, as individuals, might be spared upon their repentance and reformation from idolatry. For on the supposition that nothing that breathed was to be saved alive, but that all were to be utterly destroyed, there could be no occasion for this injunction. What end could it answer to forbid all intermarriages with a people supposed not to exist?

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 3. Neither shalt thou make marriages, &c.] The heart being naturally inclined to evil, there is more likelihood that the idolatrous wife should draw aside the believing husband, than that the believing husband should be able to bring over his idolatrous wife to the true faith.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. neither … make marriages with them] In the narratives in Genesis and Judges marriages are regarded as best when between members of the same family or tribe (Gen_28:2; Gen_28:8 f.) and as unfortunate when the wives are foreign (Gen_26:34 f., Gen_27:46; Jdg_14:3). But no law against marriage with foreigners is either assumed or implied. On the contrary, Moses (Exo_2:21), David (2Sa_3:3), Solomon (1Ki_11:1), Ahab (1Ki_16:31), all marry foreigners, and there are other instances (Bath-sheba and Uriah, etc.). The deuteronomic veto, therefore, may be assumed to be the earliest law against such marriages (Exo_34:16 is editorial) and to have become necessary by the experience of their evil consequences, conducive to idolatry (Jdg_3:5 f., deuteronomic). At the same time D allows marriage with a foreign woman taken in war (Deu_21:10). That the law was not kept is seen from the Book of Ezra.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them,.... Unless they became proselytes, as Rahab, who was married by Salmon, and so those of other nations, as Ruth the Moabitess, and so any captive taken in war; otherwise it was not lawful, bad consequences have followed upon it, which it is the design of this law to prevent; that is, being snared and drawn aside into idolatry, which was the case of Solomon:

thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son; for, according to the Targum of Jonathan, whosoever marries with them, it is as if he married with their idols: and this law, according to the Jewish writers (c), is binding with respect to other nations besides the seven; and whosoever marries any Heathen, of whatsoever nation, is to be beaten.

(c) Maimon. Hilchot lssure Biah, c. 12. sect. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Marriages. Some believe that it was unlawful to marry the people of Chanaan, if they were even converted, and also those of other nations, as we find that Esdras (1 Esdras x. 2, 12,) ordered such strange wives to be sent away. But the context shews, as well as the practice of most pious Hebrews, that it was only forbidden to marry with those who adhered to their idolatry, ver. 4. Salmon took to wife Rahab, of Jericho; Mahalon and Booz successively married Ruth, the Moabitess, and Moses himself allows the Hebrews to espouse their captives, and to preserve the lives of women and children, chap. xx. 14., and xxi. 11. (Calmet) See Exodus xxxiv. 15. --- Hence all the Chanaanites were not necessarily to be slain. The few exceptions did not hinder the rule from being general. See ver. 16., and Numbers xiv. 23.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

3. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them — There was always peril to the Israelites in their having close relations with the heathen nations. Their history thus far since they left Egypt has shown how prone they were to idolatry.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Brought into intimate relations with idolaters, they might be seduced into idolatry; and where marriage was contracted with an idolater, the children might be brought up in idolatry. Such unions were forbidden.

Vers. 3, 4. Marriage in the Lord.

This law, forbidding marriages with the ungodly, is one for all time. The apostle revives it in 1Co_7:39. That marriage should be only in the Lord is evident

I FROM THE TRUE IDEA OF MARRIAGE. Two individuals unite their lives, and enter into a fellowship the most intimate possible to what end? Surely that their natures may be raised to greater perfection, and that they may be better enabled to attain the ends of their existence. This implies a certain harmony of disposition, an essential accordance in the views taken of life and its duties. It is a union, as One has said, not merely between two creatures, but also between two spirits. But what communion, it may be asked, can exist in spiritual respects between two persons severed from each other in the deepest principles of their lives?

II FROM A REGARD TO THE DIVINE BLESSING. Where one partner is irreligious, the blessing cannot rest upon the home in the same degree as where both are "heirs together of the grace of life". (1Pe_3:7) Believers are to "agree" as touching what things they shall ask. (Mat_18:19) Variances even in godly households result in prayers being "hindered". (1Pe_3:7) How much sadder the case of a home, so-called, where husband and wife stand so far apart that they cannot unite in prayer at all! And who that values God"s blessing would willingly enter into a relation which inevitably stints and limits it?

III FROM THE DANGER ACCRUING TO SPIRITUAL LIFE. The danger is not imaginary. (1Ki_11:3) Where spiritual life is not destroyed, as we may hope that often it is not, yet nothing but harm can come from an association in every respect adverse to it. How intolerable to a spiritual mind to endure "the blight of all sympathy, to be dragged down to earth, and forced to become frivolous and commonplace; to lose all zest and earnestness in life; to have heart and life degraded by mean and perpetually recurring sources of disagreement" (F. W. Robertson)! This is the species of living death to which unequal yoking not infrequently leads. The effects on offspring are also to be considered. Yet such marriages are rushed into, and, in the prevalent anxiety to make marriage the stepping-stone to wealth and social position, seem likely to become increasingly numerous. Would that men were wise, that they understood these things. J.O.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.