Exodus 34:16

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible

And thou wilt take of his daughters for thy sons, - And his daughters will go unchastely after their gods, And will cause thy sons to go unchastely after their gods.

Parallel Translations

Geneva Bible (1587)
And least thou take of their daughters vnto thy sonnes, and their daughters goe a whoring after their gods, and make thy sonnes goe a whoring after their gods.

George Lamsa Translation
And you shall take of their daughters to your sons, and give your daughters to their sons; and your daughters shall go astray after their gods, and their daughters cause your sons to go astray after their gods.

Hebrew Names Version
and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.

Easy-to-Read Version
You might choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons. Those daughters serve false gods. They might lead your sons to do the same thing.

English Standard Version
and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

American Standard Version
and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters play the harlot after their gods, and make thy sons play the harlot after their gods.

Bible in Basic English
Or take their daughters for your sons; for when their daughters give worship before their gods, they will make your sons take part with them.

Contemporary English Version
Your men will even marry their women and be influenced to worship their gods.

Complete Jewish Bible
and you will take their daughters as wives for your sons. Their daughters will prostitute themselves to their own gods and make your sons do the same!

JPS Old Testament (1917)
and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go astray after their gods, and make thy sons go astray after their gods.

King James Version (1611)
And thou take of their daughters vnto thy sonnes, and their daughters goe a whoring after their gods, and make thy sonnes goe a whoring after their gods.

Amplified Bible
and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters would play the prostitute with their gods and cause your sons also to play the prostitute (commit apostasy) with their gods [that is, abandon the true God for man-made idols].

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and thou shouldest take of their daughters to thy sons, and thou shouldest give of thy daughters to their sons; and thy daughters should go a whoring after their gods, and thy sons should go a whoring after their gods.

English Revised Version
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.

Berean Standard Bible
and when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.

Lexham English Bible
and you take from their daughters for your sons, and their daughters prostitute themselves after their gods, and they cause your sons to prostitute themselves after their gods.

Literal Translation
and you take from their daughters for your sons, and their daughters fornicate with their gods, and they lead your sons to fornicate with their gods.

New Century Version
If you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters worship gods, they will lead your sons to do the same thing.

New English Translation
and you then take his daughters for your sons, and when his daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods as well.

New King James Version
and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.

New Living Translation
Then you will accept their daughters, who sacrifice to other gods, as wives for your sons. And they will seduce your sons to commit adultery against me by worshiping other gods.

New Life Bible
And you would marry your sons to their daughters who follow their gods. And they would lead your sons to follow their gods also.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Neither shalt thou take of their daughters a wife for thy son, lest after they themselves have committed fornication, they make thy sons also to commit fornication with their gods.

Revised Standard Version
and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters play the harlot after their gods and make your sons play the harlot after their gods.

Good News Translation
Your sons might marry those foreign women, who would lead them to be unfaithful to me and to worship their pagan gods.

King James Version
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.

Darby Translation
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.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Nether thou schalt take a wyif of her douytris to thi sones, lest aftir that tho douytris han do fornycacioun, thei make also thi sones to do fornicacioun in to her goddis.

Young's Literal Translation
and thou hast taken of their daughters to thy sons, and their daughters have gone a-whoring after their gods, and have caused thy sons to go a-whoring after their gods;

World English Bible
and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.

Update Bible Version
And when you take of their daughters-who prostitute after their gods-to your sons, then their daughters will make your sons prostitute after their gods.

Webster's Bible Translation
And thou take of their daughters to thy sons, and their daughters go astray after their gods, and make thy sons go astray after their gods.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And thou take of their daughters vnto thy sonnes, and their daughters go a whoryng after their gods, and make thy sonnes go a whoryng after their gods also.

Christian Standard Bible®
Then you will take some of their daughters as brides for your sons. Their daughters will prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and lest thou take of their doughters vnto thy sonnes to wyues, and the same go a whoringe after their goddes,

New American Standard Bible
and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons also to prostitute themselves with their gods.

New Revised Standard
And you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.

Legacy Standard Bible
and you take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.

Contextual Overview

¹⁰ And he said - Lo! I, am about to solemnise a covenant,-in presence of all thy people, will I do marvellous things, which have not been created in any part of the earth nor among any of the nations, - so shall all the people in whose midst thou, art see the work of Yahweh for a fearful thing, it is, which I, am doing with thee. ¹¹ Take thou heed what, I, am commanding thee this day, - behold me! driving out from before thee - the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. ¹² Take heed to thyself, Lest thou solemnise a covenant with the inhabitant of the land, whereupon, thou, art about to enter, - Lest he become a snare in thy midst; ¹³ For their altars, shall ye smash, And their pillars, shall ye shiver, - And their sacred-stems, shall ye fell. ¹⁴ For thou shalt not bow thyself down to another GOD, - For as for Yahweh, Jealous, is his name, A jealous GOD, he is: ¹⁵ Lest thou solemnise a covenant with the inhabitant of the land, - And then as surely as they go unchastely after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, So surely will he invite thee, And thou wilt eat of his sacrifice; ¹⁶ And thou wilt take of his daughters for thy sons, - And his daughters will go unchastely after their gods, And will cause thy sons to go unchastely after their gods. ¹⁷ Molten gods, shalt thou not make to thee.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Numbers 25:1, Numbers 25:2, Deuteronomy 7:3, Deuteronomy 7:4, 1 Kings 11:2-4, Ezra 9:2, Nehemiah 13:23, Nehemiah 13:25, 2 Corinthians 6:14-17

Reciprocal: Genesis 6:2 - and they Genesis 24:3 - that Genesis 26:34 - the daughter Genesis 28:1 - Thou shalt Leviticus 20:6 - go Numbers 12:1 - married Numbers 15:39 - go a whoring Judges 2:17 - whoring Judges 3:6 - General Judges 8:33 - went Ezra 9:12 - give not Nehemiah 10:30 - General Psalms 106:36 - And Psalms 106:39 - went Isaiah 2:6 - and they Hosea 1:2 - for Acts 15:20 - from pollutions

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons,.... That is, marry them to them, which explains what is meant by making a covenant with them, entering into such a near relation, and joining families, and thus intermixing with one another;

and their daughters go a whoring after their gods; the worship of whom they have been trained up in from their infancy, and therefore hanker after them, and commit whoredom in a spiritual sense with them;

and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods; by the means of tempting and drawing them into idolatrous practices, as the wives of Solomon were a snare to him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The precepts contained in these verses are, for the most part, identical in substance with some of those which follow the Ten Commandments and are recorded in “the Book of the covenant” (Exo. 20–23; see Exodus 24:7).

Exodus 34:13

Cut down their groves - This is the first reference to what is commonly known as grove-worship. The original word for “grove” in this connection אשׁרה 'ăshêrāh is different from that so rendered in Genesis 21:33. Our translators supposed that what the law commands is the destruction of groves dedicated to the worship of false deities Judges 6:25; 2 Kings 18:4; but inasmuch as the worship of asherah is found associated with that of Astarte, or Ashtoreth Judges 2:13; Jdg 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:4, it seems probable that while Astarte was the personal name of the goddess, the asherah was a symbol of her, probably in some one of her characters, made in wood in some conventional form.

Exodus 34:15-16

An expansion of Exodus 34:12. The unfaithfulness of the nation to its covenant with Yahweh is here for the first time spoken of as a breach of the marriage bond. The metaphor is, in any case, a natural one, but it seems to gain point, if we suppose it to convey an allusion to the abominations connected with pagan worship, such as are spoken of in Numbers 25:1-3.

Exodus 34:21

See Exodus 20:9; Exodus 23:12. There is here added to the commandment a particular caution respecting those times of year when the land calls for most labor. The old verb “to ear” (i. e. to plow) is genuine English.

Exodus 34:24

Neither shall any man desire etc. - Intended to encourage such as might fear the consequences of obeying the divine law in attending to their religious duties. Compare Proverbs 16:7.