Discovery BoxGenesis 6:2
Context6:2 the sons of God 1 saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose.
Deuteronomy 7:3-4
Context7:3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 7:4 for they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will erupt against you and he will quickly destroy you.
Joshua 23:12-13
Context23:12 But if you ever turn away and make alliances with 2 these nations that remain near you, 3 and intermarry with them and establish friendly relations with them, 4 23:13 know for certain that the Lord our God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. They will trap and ensnare you; 5 they will be a whip that tears 6 your sides and thorns that blind 7 your eyes until you disappear 8 from this good land the Lord your God gave you.
Nehemiah 13:23-29
Context13:23 Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 13:24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod (or the language of one of the other peoples mentioned 9 ) and were unable to speak the language of Judah. 13:25 So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying, “You will not marry off 10 your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves! 13:26 Was it not because of things like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made 11 him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin! 13:27 Should we then in your case hear that you do all this great evil, thereby being unfaithful to our God by marrying 12 foreign wives?”
13:28 Now one of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. So I banished him from my sight.
13:29 Please remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priesthood, 13 and the Levites.
[6:2] 1 sn The Hebrew phrase translated “sons of God” (בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים, bÿne-ha’elohim) occurs only here (Gen 6:2, 4) and in Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. There are three major interpretations of the phrase here. (1) In the Book of Job the phrase clearly refers to angelic beings. In Gen 6 the “sons of God” are distinct from “humankind,” suggesting they were not human. This is consistent with the use of the phrase in Job. Since the passage speaks of these beings cohabiting with women, they must have taken physical form or possessed the bodies of men. An early Jewish tradition preserved in 1 En. 6-7 elaborates on this angelic revolt and even names the ringleaders. (2) Not all scholars accept the angelic interpretation of the “sons of God,” however. Some argue that the “sons of God” were members of Seth’s line, traced back to God through Adam in Gen 5, while the “daughters of humankind” were descendants of Cain. But, as noted above, the text distinguishes the “sons of God” from humankind (which would include the Sethites as well as the Cainites) and suggests that the “daughters of humankind” are human women in general, not just Cainites. (3) Others identify the “sons of God” as powerful tyrants, perhaps demon-possessed, who viewed themselves as divine and, following the example of Lamech (see Gen 4:19), practiced polygamy. But usage of the phrase “sons of God” in Job militates against this view. For literature on the subject see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:135.
[23:12] 3 tn Heb “the remnant of the these nations, these nations that are with you.”
[23:12] 4 tn Heb “and go into them, and they into you.”
[23:13] 5 tn Heb “be a trap and a snare to you.”
[23:13] 7 tn Heb “thorns in your eyes.”
[13:24] 9 tn Heb “people and people.”
[13:27] 12 tn Heb “give a dwelling to.”
[13:29] 13 tc One medieval Hebrew
