Intermarriage Warning

The Bible says that intermarriage-warning language appears alongside cautions about remaining nations and marriages with their people. Joshua 23:12 warns against turning back, clinging to those nations, and intermarrying with them. Joshua 23:13 says those nations will become “a snare and a trap,” a scourge, and thorns, until the people perish from the land given by the LORD.

In Judges 3:6, marriages involving daughters are followed by the statement that “they served their gods.” Judges 14:3 records Samson’s parents questioning his wish to take a Philistine wife. The word or idea recurs in at least 4 verses, in Joshua and Judges.