Judges 3:6

_AND THEY TOOK THEIR DAUGHTERS TO BE THEIR WIVES, AND GAVE THEIR DAUGHTERS TO THEIR SONS, AND SERVED THEIR GODS._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

1-7 As the Israelites were a type of the church on earth, they were not to be idle and slothful. The Lord was pleased to try them by the remains of the devoted nations they spared. Temptations and trials detect the wickedness of the hearts of sinners; and strengthen he graces of believers in their daily conflict with Satan, sin, and this evil world. They must live in this world, but they are not of it, and are forbidden to conform to it. This marks the difference between the followers of Christ and mere professors. The friendship of the world is more fatal than its enmity; the latter can only kill the body, but the former murders many precious souls....

Verse Judges 3:6. _AND THEY TOOK THEIR DAUGHTERS_] They formed matrimonial alliances with those proscribed nations, served their idols, and thus became one with them in _politics_ and _religion_....

See Judges 2:2 note....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 3:1 NOW THESE ARE THE NATIONS, etc. We are now told in detail what was stated in general in Judges 2:22, Judges 2:23, after the common method of Hebrew narrative. TO PROVE ISRAEL. This word _to prove _is_ _used here in a somewhat different sense from that which it bears in Judges 2:4 and in Judges 2:22. In those passages it is used of their moral probation, of proving or testing their faith and obedience; but here it is rather in the sense of "to exercise" or "to accustom them

AND THEY TOOK THEIR DAUGHTERS TO BE THEIR WIVES, AND GAVE THEIR DAUGHTERS TO THEIR SONS,.... The Israelites intermarried with the inhabitants of the land, contrary to the express command of God, Deuteronomy 7:3; whereby they confounded their families, debased their blood, and were ensnared into idolatry, as follows: perhaps to these unlawful marriages, in their first settlement in the land of Canaan, reference is had in Ezekiel 16:3, "thy father [was] an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite"; an Amorite marrying a daughter of Israel, and an Israelitish man an Hittite woman: AND SERVED THEIR GODS; this was the natural consequence of their intermarriages, which the Lord foresaw, and therefore cautioned them against them,...

II. THE DECLENSIONS, PUNISHMENTS AND DELIVERANCES 1. The Sin of Idolatry and Othniel CHAPTER 3:5-11 _ 1. The first declension (Judges 3:5)_ 2. Sold to the king of Mesopotamia (Judges 3:8) 3. The deliverance through Othniel (Judges 3:9) The first declension, bondage and deliverance is briefly related. We see how Israel went from bad to worse. First, the wicked nations they were to exterminate dwelt amongst them. Then the children of Israel established some relationship with them and dwelt amongst these nations. First, the children of Israel permitted them to exist in their midst; then the doomed nations gained the power over Israel and the people of God became dependent on them. The third step dow

JUDGES 2:6 TO JUDGES 3:6. THE DEUTERONOMIST'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JUDGES PROPER (Judges 3:5 to Judges 16:31). In the view of this interpreter of sacred history, the whole era of the Judges falls into longer or shorter times of national prosperity, in which Yahweh protects and blesses His faithful people, alternating with times of national calamity, in which He withdraws His favour and blessing from apostates. On the beneficent strength of the Judge the pillars of state rest secure for a whole generation, and his decease is like the removal of the key-stone of an arch. The writer's general principle his philosophy of history is based on sound prophetic

TOOK THEIR DAUGHTERS, contrary to Jehovah's express command. Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3....

_they took their daughters_ Cf. Genesis 34:9; Genesis 34:16; Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3. According to the ideas of the ancient world, it was impossible for the Israelites to maintain any religious exclusiveness when they intermarried with the heathen nations (cf. Judges 2:1); the connubium carried with it an alliance of religion and worship, as for instance in the case of Solomon, 1 Kings 11:1 ff. The source of these two verses is disputed. If the connexion suggested above is