Biblical Intermarriages

 Biblical intermarriages

Most with even a cursory knowledge of history will recall that marriages between the

rulers of different countries were often carried out to create or strengthen allies.

Sometimes this occurred on a national level, sometimes personal. What happened with

the Children of Israel prior to 722 BCE was no different.

The first such marriage we hear about in the Old Testament was between Patriarch

Jacob's son, Joseph, and “Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, a marriage

arranged by the Pharoah. Thus Joseph gained authority over the land of Egypt.”

(Genesis 41:45) At the same time, the Pharaoh hired him to be his, in effect, Prime

Minister. The aim here was no doubt to foster loyalty to the Pharaoh by having his

underling marry this Egyptian aristocrat. Some suggest Joseph consented as it

provided security for him and his family, perhaps even all of Jacob’s family at the time.

Another such marriage we read about was between King Saul's daughter, Michal, and

David, when he was a servant of King Saul. Saul had offered David the older daughter

Merab, but David in humility turned that down We read that Saul’s younger daughter

Michal actually loved David. The timing and terms were more acceptable to David and

though he initially turned that down too, he did accept that offer (I Samuel 18:20-29).

Sadly, that marriage soured when Michal disapproved of some of David’s ecstatic

behaviour as when he led the return of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, dancing

at the head of the procession (II Samuel 6:16-23). It seems David’s seemingly harsh

response to her disapproval left her childless.

David's son, King Solomon, married a daughter of the contemporary Pharaoh, no

doubt to strengthen the relationship between Egypt and Israel (I Kings 3:1). This would

have been helpful for Israel in those days because Egypt was a much more ancient and

powerful, larger nation that was regularly confronted by nations, such as the Hittites,

Assyrians and Babylonians. These nations lived north and east of Israel, making Israel

a crossing area in their advances to battle each other if not an actual fighting area

between these forces if they met in Israel.

Then we read of intermarriage after the nation split in Solomon’s son Rehoboam’s reign

between Judah, the Southern Kingdom, and Israel, now referring only to the Northern

Kingdom. This last was later also referred to as Samaria after that city was later built as

its capital. These relationships turned out to be fatal for the participants.

Omri, an Israelite king, was the father to his successor King Ahab. Omri had built Israel

into a fairly powerful kingdom (I Kings 16:27-8). It was he, the sixth king of Israel, who

built Samaria as the capital. Thus, Ahab was ranked highly enough to be able to marry

Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians (I Kings 16:31). That would have

been to strengthen their relationship with Sidon, a powerful city state city with its

surrounding area that stood between Israel and the Mediterranean. It might also have

been helpful in defence against those warring nations from the southwest and

northeast that crossed this way that we have already referred to.

Unfortunately, this marriage was the beginning of the downfall of Israel, as Ahab disobeyed all of God’s

commands and introduced his wife’s pagan worship of Baal to Israel (I Kings 16:31-33).

This is also the last and most dramatic story of how these marriages played out.

In spite of his faithfulness versus Ahab's adoption of idolatry, especially because of the

influence of his pagan wife Jezebel, Judaean King Jehoshaphat made himself an ally of

Ahab in some of his battles (I Kings 22). This relationship is no doubt what led to

Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram marrying Ahab's daughter (II Kings 8:16-18). 

When he was on his apparently divinely appointed killing rampage to eliminate Ahab’s family as a

punishment for their apostasy as prophesied by the prophet Elisha, Jehu killed both Ahab’s son,

King Jehoram and Jehoshaphat’s son Ahaziah, his nephew (II Kings 9:14-29). This was

made easy by Ahaziah’s fatal decision to visit Jehoram in Israel after being fatally

wounded by Jehu (II Kings 8:29). This was not surprising as Ahaziah had married a

daughter of Ahab. Jezebel was also killed at this time (II Kings 9:30-37), fulfilling

another of Elisha’s prophesies. Jehu also came across other individuals who identified

themselves as relatives of Ahaziah, 42 in all we are told, and he killed all of them (II

Kings 10:12-14).

A final member of Ahab's family who was killed was Omri’s granddaughter, Ahab’s

daughter Athaliah. When her son Ahaziah had been killed, leaving no heir, she had

destroyed the rest of the family to make herself queen except for her daughter

Jehosheba’s taking and hiding Ahaziah’s youngest son Joash (II Kings 11:1-3). He was

brought up by the high priest Jehoiada, and when it was determined it was time to

make him king, Athaliah was killed, completing the destruction of Ahab's family (II

Kings 11:4-16).

Graphic representation of Ahab’s family