2 Corinthians 6:14-17

New International Version

Warning Against Idolatry

¹⁴Do not be yoked together^(A) with unbelievers.^(B) For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?^(C) ¹⁵What harmony is there between Christ and Belial^[a]?^(D) Or what does a believer^(E) have in common with an unbeliever?^(F) ¹⁶What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?^(G) For we are the temple^(H) of the living God.^(I) As God has said:

“I will live with them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”^[b]^(J)

¹⁷Therefore,

“Come out from them^(K)
and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you.”^[c]^(L)

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Footnotes

2 Corinthians 6:15 Greek Beliar, a variant of Belial
2 Corinthians 6:16 Lev. 26:12; Jer. 32:38; Ezek. 37:27
2 Corinthians 6:17 Isaiah 52:11; Ezek. 20:34,41

Ezra 9:11

New International Version

¹¹you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering^(A) to possess is a land polluted^(B) by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices^(C) they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other.

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Ezra 9:11 in all English translations

Ezra 9:12

New International Version

¹²Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them^(A) at any time, that you may be strong^(B) and eat the good things^(C) of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’^(D)

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Ezra 9:12 in all English translations

Nehemiah 13:23-30

New International Version

²³Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married^(A) women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.^(B) ²⁴Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language^(C) of Judah. ²⁵I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath^(D) in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.^(E) ²⁶Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him.^(F) He was loved by his God,^(G) and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women.^(H) ²⁷Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying^(I) foreign women?”

²⁸One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib^(J) the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat^(K) the Horonite. And I drove him away from me.

²⁹Remember^(L) them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.^(M)

³⁰So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign,^(N) and assigned them duties, each to his own task.

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Joshua 23:11-13

New International Version

¹¹So be very careful^(A) to love the Lord^(B) your God.

¹²“But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them^(C) and associate with them,^(D) ¹³then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out^(E) these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares^(F) and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes,^(G) until you perish from this good land,^(H) which the Lord your God has given you.