Jeremiah 29:6

Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters ,.... That is, such as had no wives, who were either bachelors or widowers; not that they were to take wives of the Chaldeans, but of those of their own nation; for intermarriages with Heathens were forbidden them; and this they were to do, in order to propagate their posterity, and keep up a succession:

and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands ; or "men" F19 לאנשים "viris", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt. ; preserving and establishing the right of parents to give their children in marriage, and pointing to them their duty to provide suitable yoke fellows for them; and hereby is signified, that not only they, but their children after them, should continue in this state of captivity:

that they may bear sons and daughters, that ye may be increased there ;

and not diminished ; like their ancestors in Egypt, who grew very numerous amidst all their afflictions and bondage.