And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
The Israelites married the daughters of these foreign nations and gave their own daughters in marriage to the foreign men. They also worshiped the gods of these other peoples.
This verse shows how the Israelites disobeyed God by intermarrying with pagan nations and adopting their false religions.
📚 Historical Context
In the Book of Judges, the Israelites had settled in the Promised Land after their exodus from Egypt but repeatedly failed to drive out the Canaanite nations as God had commanded them. This led to intermarriages between the Israelites and these pagan peoples, which directly violated God's warnings in the Law to avoid such alliances. As a result, the Israelites began worshiping the false gods of the Canaanites, contributing to a cycle of spiritual decline and judgment described throughout the book.
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