Genesis 24:3

24:3 so that I may make you solemnly promise ¹  by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth: You must not acquire ²  a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living.

Genesis 24:37

24:37 My master made me swear an oath. He said, ‘You must not acquire a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living,

Genesis 26:34-35

26:34 When ³  Esau was forty years old, ⁴  he married ⁵  Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, as well as Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 26:35 They caused Isaac and Rebekah great anxiety. ⁶ 

Genesis 27:46

27:46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am deeply depressed ⁷  because of these daughters of Heth. ⁸  If Jacob were to marry one of these daughters of Heth who live in this land, I would want to die!” ⁹ 

Genesis 28:6-9

28:6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. ¹⁰  As he blessed him, ¹¹  Isaac commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” ¹²  28:7 Jacob obeyed his father and mother and left for Paddan Aram. 28:8 Then Esau realized ¹³  that the Canaanite women ¹⁴  were displeasing to ¹⁵  his father Isaac. 28:9 So Esau went to Ishmael and married ¹⁶  Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, along with the wives he already had.

Genesis 34:14-15

34:14 They said to them, “We cannot give ¹⁷  our sister to a man who is not circumcised, for it would be a disgrace ¹⁸  to us. 34:15 We will give you our consent on this one condition: You must become ¹⁹  like us by circumcising ²⁰  all your males.

Genesis 41:45

41:45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. ²¹  He also gave him Asenath ²²  daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, ²³  to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of ²⁴  all the land of Egypt.

Exodus 34:16

34:16 and you then take ²⁵  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.

Leviticus 21:14

21:14 He must not marry ²⁶  a widow, a divorced woman, or one profaned by prostitution; he may only take a virgin from his people ²⁷  as a wife.

¹ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose.

² tn Heb “because you must not take.”

³ tn The sentence begins with the temporal indicator (“and it happened”), making this clause subordinate to the next.

⁴ tn Heb “the son of forty years.”

⁵ tn Heb “took as a wife.”

⁶ tn Heb “And they were [a source of ] bitterness in spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.”

⁷ tn Heb “loathe my life.” The Hebrew verb translated “loathe” refers to strong disgust (see Lev 20:23).

⁸ tn Some translate the Hebrew term “Heth” as “Hittites” here (see also Gen 23:3), but this gives the impression that these people were the classical Hittites of Anatolia. However, there is no known connection between these sons of Heth, apparently a Canaanite group (see Gen 10:15), and the Hittites of Asia Minor. See H. A. Hoffner, Jr., “Hittites,” Peoples of the Old Testament World, 152-53.

⁹ tn Heb “If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, why to me life?”

¹⁰ tn Heb “to take for himself from there a wife.”

¹¹ tn The infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffix form a temporal clause.

¹² tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

¹³ tn Heb “saw.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “the daughters of Canaan.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “evil in the eyes of.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “took for a wife.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “we are not able to do this thing, to give.” The second infinitive is in apposition to the first, explaining what they are not able to do.

¹⁸ tn The Hebrew word translated “disgrace” usually means “ridicule; taunt; reproach.” It can also refer to the reason the condition of shame or disgrace causes ridicule or a reproach.

¹⁹ tn Heb “if you are like us.”

²⁰ tn The infinitive here explains how they would become like them.

²¹ sn The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name, Zaphenath-Paneah, is uncertain. Many recent commentators have followed the proposal of G. Steindorff that it means “the god has said, ‘he will live’” (“Der Name Josephs Saphenat-Pa‘neach,” ZÄS 31 [1889]: 41-42); others have suggested “the god speaks and lives” (see BDB 861 s.v. צָפְנָת פַּעְנֵחַ); “the man he knows” (J. Vergote, Joseph en Égypte, 145); or “Joseph [who is called] áIp-àankh” (K. A. Kitchen, NBD³ 1262).

²² sn The name Asenath may mean “she belongs to the goddess Neit” (see HALOT 74 s.v. אָֽסְנַת). A novel was written at the beginning of the first century entitled Joseph and Asenath, which included a legendary account of the conversion of Asenath to Joseph’s faith in Yahweh. However, all that can be determined from this chapter is that their children received Hebrew names. See also V. Aptowitzer, “Asenath, the Wife of Joseph – a Haggadic Literary-Historical Study,” HUCA 1 (1924): 239-306.

²³ sn On (also in v. 50) is another name for the city of Heliopolis.

²⁴ tn Heb “and he passed through.”

²⁵ tn In the construction this verb would follow as a possible outcome of the last event, and so remain in the verbal sequence. If the people participate in the festivals of the land, then they will intermarry, and that could lead to further involvement with idolatry.

²⁶ tn Heb “take.” In context this means “take as wife,” i.e., “marry.”

²⁷ tc The MT has literally, “from his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “from his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.