Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave [it] for an inheritance to your children for ever.
Ver. 12. Now therefore give not your daughters] Unless ye have a mind to pitch them into the mouth of hell. See Ezra 9:2. See Trapp on " Ezr 9:2 "
Nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever] For they were devoted by God to utter destruction; and therefore Israel might have no intercourse with them. The Jews at this day count and call us Canaanites, Edomites, &c., and hold it an almsdeed to knock us on the head. The best among the Gentiles, say they, is worthy cui caput conteratur tanquam serpenti, to be killed up as a serpent. Tacitus long since observed of them, that as they were very kind to their own, so to all others they bare a deadly hatred. Thrice a day in their prayers they curse us Christians, and in Polony (where they have a toleration) they print base and blasphemous things against Christ and religion (Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. cap. 5).
That ye may be strong] viz. By my presence amongst you and providence over you; for cui adhaereo, praeest, as Queen Elizabeth could write; how much more may God Almighty, he whom I favour is sure to prevail.
And eat the good of the land] The best of the best, the finest wheat, the choicest fruit, and those a pledge and foretaste of the happiness of heaven, where there is nec fames, nec fastidium (as one saith), neither lack nor loathing, neither measure nor mixture, but sweetest varieties, felicities, eternities.
And leave it for an inheritance] Personal goodness is profitable to posterity: the righteous shall leave inheritance to his children's children, Proverbs 13:22. God never casteth out his good tenants, nor leaveth his servants unprovided for. See Psalms 103:17; Psalms 112:1,2 .