Deuteronomy 7:3

Summary

The verse prohibits intermarriage between the addressee (Israel, second person masculine singular) and the peoples referred to by the third-person plural suffix "them." It specifies this prohibition in two concrete directions: giving one's daughter to their son, and taking their daughter for one's son.

Key words

• tit.chaTen ("you will intermarry", H2859B) — hithpael imperfect, a reflexive/reciprocal stem indicating mutual action ("to make oneself a son-in-law/relative by marriage"), addressed to a singular "you."
• biTekha ("your daughter", H1323G + H9021) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, marking possession: "daughter of you."
• tiTen ("you will give", H5414G) — qal imperfect, simple active future/ongoing action, contrasting with the reflexive verb of clause one.
• tiKach ("you will take", H3947G) — qal imperfect, parallel in form to tiTen, describing the reciprocal action (receiving a daughter for one's son).
• livNo ("to/for his son", H1121A + H9023) — construct noun with preposition and suffix, marking the recipient of the daughter.

What the text says

The verse opens with a general prohibition using the hithpael verb titchaTen ("you will intermarry", H2859B), a reflexive/reciprocal stem built on the root meaning "son-in-law" or "relative by marriage." This stem frames the entire relationship as a mutual, ongoing bond rather than a single act, encompassing both directions of marriage exchange. The clause is directed at a second-person masculine singular subject, addressing the community as a collective "you," and the object is marked by the preposition ba ("with the", H9003) plus the third-person plural suffix m ("them", H9038), referring back to the nations named earlier in the passage's context.

After this general statement, the verse breaks the prohibition into two specific, parallel actions using simple qal imperfect verbs: tiTen ("you will give", H5414G) and tiKach ("you will take", H3947G). Both daughter and son nouns appear in construct form with pronominal suffixes (bitekha, "your daughter"; bito, "his daughter"; livno, "to his son"; livnekha, "for your son"), creating a chiastic structure: daughter-to-his-son / his-daughter-to-your-son. This grammatical mirroring in the Hebrew makes explicit that the prohibition applies symmetrically — neither direction of marriage exchange is permitted.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the opening verb as γαμβρεύσητε ("you shall become sons-in-law/make marriage alliances"), using a form built on the same relational concept as the Hebrew hithpael, but expressed as a second-person plural subjunctive rather than singular. The Vulgate uses sociabis... conjugia ("you will join marriages together"), a periphrastic construction with a noun (conjugia, "marriages") rather than a single verb form, differing structurally from both the Hebrew reflexive verb and the Greek verbal form.