4:3 we alone will build. The discrimination was not racial or political, but religious. From the early days of living in the Promised Land (Judg. 3:6) and throughout their history (2 Kin. 17:7–17), alliances with foreigners led the Israelites into idolatry and ultimately to exile from the land (2 Kin. 17:18–23). The failure of the returnees to separate themselves from the indigenous population became a problem before long (Ezra 9; 10). The same principle of religious separation is still operative under the new covenant (2 Cor. 6:14–7:1).