Joshua 23:12

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

But if you ever turn away and make alliances with these nations that remain near you, and intermarry with them and establish friendly relations with them,

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

כִּ֣י ׀ אִם־שׁ֣וֹב תָּשׁ֗וּבוּ וּדְבַקְתֶּם֙ בְּיֶ֙תֶר֙ הַגּוֹיִ֣ם הָאֵ֔לֶּה הַנִּשְׁאָרִ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה אִתְּכֶ֑ם וְהִֽתְחַתַּנְתֶּ֥ם בָּהֶ֛ם וּבָאתֶ֥ם בָּהֶ֖ם וְהֵ֥ם בָּכֶֽם׃

Transliteration

But if šôḇ tāšûḇû and dəḇaqtem in yeter the gôyim the ʾēlleh the nnišʾārîm the ʾēlleh with you and wəhitḥattantem in them and ûḇāʾtem in them and they in you.

Grammar Details

• *šôḇ*: qal infinitive absolute - returning
• *tāšûḇû*: qal imperfect 2mp - you will return
• *dəḇaqtem*: qal perfect 2mp - you have clung to
• *yeter*: noun construct - remainder of
• *gôyim*: masculine plural noun with definite article - the nations
• *ʾēlleh*: demonstrative pronoun - these
• *nnišʾārîm*: niphal participle masculine plural with definite article - the remaining ones
• *wəhitḥattantem*: waw + hithpael perfect 2mp - and you intermarry
• *ûḇāʾtem*: waw + qal perfect 2mp - and you go in

Word Meanings

• *šôḇ tāšûḇû*: indeed return/surely turn back/if you turn back at all
• *dəḇaqtem*: cling to/join with/adhere to
• *yeter*: remainder/rest/remnant
• *nnišʾārîm*: remaining/surviving/left over
• *wəhitḥattantem*: intermarry/make marriage alliances
• *ûḇāʾtem bāhem wəhēm bākem*: you go in to them and they to you/you intermingle with them and they with you

Referenced Verses

• Deut 7:3 : 3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
• 1 Sam 18:1-3 : 1 Saul Comes to Fear David When David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan and David became bound together in close friendship. Jonathan loved David as much as he did his own life. 2 Saul retained David on that day and did not allow him to return to his father’s house. 3 Jonathan made a covenant with David, for he loved him as much as he did his own life.
• 1 Kgs 11:2 : 2 They came from nations about which the LORD had warned the Israelites,“You must not establish friendly relations with them! If you do, they will surely shift your allegiance to their gods.” But Solomon was irresistibly attracted to them.
• 1 Kgs 11:4 : 4 When Solomon became old, his wives shifted his allegiance to other gods; he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been.
• Ezra 9:1-2 : 1 A Prayer of Ezra Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me and said,“The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the local residents who practice detestable things similar to those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 Indeed, they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has become intermingled with the local residents. Worse still, the leaders and the officials have been at the forefront of all of this unfaithfulness!”
• Ezra 9:11-12 : 11 which you commanded us through your servants the prophets with these words:‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurities of the local residents! With their abominations they have filled it from one end to the other with their filthiness. 12 Therefore do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, and do not take their daughters in marriage for your sons. Do not ever seek their peace or welfare, so that you may be strong and may eat the good of the land and may leave it as an inheritance for your children forever.’
• Neh 13:23-26 : 23 Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod(or the language of one of the other peoples mentioned) and were unable to speak the language of Judah. 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 your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves! 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 him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin!
• Ps 36:3 : 3 The words he speaks are sinful and deceitful; he does not care about doing what is wise and right.
• Ps 106:34-35 : 34 They did not destroy the nations, as the LORD had commanded them to do. 35 They mixed in with the nations and learned their ways.
• Ps 125:5 : 5 As for those who are bent on traveling a sinful path, may the LORD remove them, along with those who behave wickedly! May Israel experience peace!
• Isa 1:4 : 4 Beware sinful nation, the people weighed down by evil deeds. They are offspring who do wrong, children who do wicked things. They have abandoned the LORD, and rejected the Holy One of Israel. They are alienated from him.
• Ezek 18:24 : 24 “But if a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing according to all the abominable practices the wicked carry out, will he live? All his righteous acts will not be remembered; because of the unfaithful acts he has done and the sin he has committed, he will die.
• Zeph 1:6 : 6 and those who turn their backs on the LORD and do not want the LORD’s help or guidance.”
• Matt 12:45 : 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so the last state of that person is worse than the first. It will be that way for this evil generation as well!”
• John 6:66 : 66 Peter’s Confession After this many of his disciples quit following him and did not accompany him any longer.
• Rom 12:9 : 9 Conduct in Love Love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.
• 2 Cor 6:14-17 : 14 Unequal Partners Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15 And what agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? 16 And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said,“I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17 Therefore“come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord,“and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you,
• Heb 10:38-39 : 38 But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I take no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not among those who shrink back and thus perish, but are among those who have faith and preserve their souls.
• 2 Pet 2:18-22 : 18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error. 19 Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality. For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if after they have escaped the filthy things of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again get entangled in them and succumb to them, their last state has become worse for them than their first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. 22 They are illustrations of this true proverb:“A dog returns to its own vomit,” and“A sow, after washing herself, wallows in the mire.”
• 1 John 2:9 : 9 The one who says he is in the light but still hates his fellow Christian is still in the darkness.
• Gen 2:24 : 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become a new family.
• Gen 34:3 : 3 Then he became very attached to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He fell in love with the young woman and spoke romantically to her.
• Exod 34:12-16 : 12 Be careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare among you. 13 Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles. 14 For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15 Be careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, you will eat from his sacrifice; 16 and you then take 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.