You must not intermarry with them, and you must not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,(A) because they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods.(B) Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you,(C) and he will swiftly destroy you.

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Israel’s Intermarriage

After these things had been done, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves(A) from the surrounding peoples whose detestable practices(B) are like those of the Canaanites, Hethites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.(C) Indeed, the Israelite men[a] have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed(D) has become mixed with the surrounding peoples.(E) The leaders[b] and officials have taken the lead in this unfaithfulness!” (F)

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Footnotes

  1. 9:2 Lit they
  2. 9:2 Lit hand of the leaders

10 Now, our God, what can we say in light of[a] this? For we have abandoned the commands 11 you gave through your servants the prophets, saying, “The land you are entering to possess is an impure land. The surrounding peoples have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness by their impurity and detestable practices.(A) 12 So do not give your daughters to their sons in marriage or take their daughters for your sons.(B) Never pursue their welfare or prosperity,(C) so that you will be strong, eat the good things of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.” 13 After all that has happened to us because of our evil deeds and terrible guilt—though you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have allowed us to survive[b](D) 14 should we break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit these detestable practices?(E) Wouldn’t you become so angry with us that you would destroy us, leaving neither remnant nor survivor?(F)

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Footnotes

  1. 9:10 Lit say after
  2. 9:13 Lit and gave us a remnant like this

23 In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.(A) 24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples but could not speak Hebrew.[a](B) 25 I rebuked them, cursed them, beat some of their men, and pulled out their hair.(C) I forced them to take an oath(D) before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or yourselves!(E) 26 Didn’t King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, yet foreign women drew him into sin.(F) 27 Why then should we hear about you doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?” (G) 28 Even one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib,(H) had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite.(I) So I drove him away from me.(J)

29 Remember them, my God, for defiling the priesthood as well as the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.(K)

30 So I purified them from everything foreign(L) and assigned specific duties to each of the priests and Levites.(M)

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Footnotes

  1. 13:24 Lit Judahite

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