“Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.”
The instruction to take wives, bear sons and daughters, and increase in number transforms the exile from an individual suffering to a communal future, affirming that the people will have descendants and that their lineage will continue despite displacement. The demographic instruction contradicts any nihilistic interpretation of exile and suggests that the community should invest in its future through family and offspring. The specific mention of increasing in number parallels God's promise to Abraham and suggests that divine blessing extends even to exiles.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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