Genesis 34:9

Summary

Genesis 34:9 records a proposal for intermarriage between two groups, structured as three parallel commands: to intermarry generally, to give daughters to the speakers, and to take the speakers' daughters in return. The verse uses reciprocal, symmetrical phrasing to describe an exchange of marriage partners.

Key words

• hitchatteNu ("intermarry with", H2859B) — hithpael imperative, a reflexive/reciprocal stem indicating mutual action ("make yourselves in-laws"), addressed to a plural "you."
• tiTenu ("you will give", H5414O) — qal imperfect, second person plural, expressing a future or commanded action of giving.
• benoteiChem ("your daughters", H1323G + suffix) — feminine plural construct noun with second-person plural suffix, marking the daughters as belonging to the addressees.
• benoteinu ("our daughters", H1323G + suffix H9025) — same noun with first-person plural suffix, creating a direct grammatical mirror to benoteiChem.
• tikChu ("you will take", H3947G) — qal imperfect, second person plural, paired with tiTenu to form the give/take reciprocity.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built in three clauses joined by ve ("and", H9002), each carrying its own verb in the second-person plural: first the hithpael imperative hitchatteNu ("intermarry"), then two qal imperfects, tiTenu ("you will give") and tikChu ("you will take"). The hithpael form of hitchatteNu is notable because this stem typically marks reciprocal or reflexive action, so the verb itself grammatically encodes the mutual nature of the marriage arrangement before the details are spelled out.

The two following clauses are constructed as mirror images: benoteiChem ("your daughters") paired with tiTenu-laNu ("you will give to us"), and et-benoteinu ("our daughters") paired with tikChu laChem ("you will take for yourselves"). Both clauses use the same construct noun benot ("daughters", H1323G) with opposite pronominal suffixes (second-person plural vs. first-person plural), reinforcing the symmetry of exchange. The direct object marker et (H0853) appears only before "our daughters" in the second clause, a common feature of Hebrew syntax marking definite direct objects, though it is not translated.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds a specification not present in the Hebrew: λάβετε τοῖς υἱοῖς ὑμῶν ("take for your sons"), where the Hebrew tikChu laChem only says "take for yourselves" (H9036, second-person plural suffix, without any reference to "sons"). The Vulgate's accipite ("take") follows the Hebrew more closely in this clause, without adding "sons" either.