Add parallel Print Page Options

from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the Israelites, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.(A)

Read full chapter

16 and you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.(A)

Read full chapter

Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,(A) for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.(B)

Read full chapter

12 For if you turn back and join the survivors of these nations left here among you and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours,(A) 13 know assuredly that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.(B)

Read full chapter

The Temple of the Living God

14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? Or what partnership is there between light and darkness?(A) 15 What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we[a] are the temple of the living God, as God said,

“I will live in them[b] and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.(B)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 6.16 Other ancient authorities read you
  2. 6.16 Or in their midst

Worship of Baal of Peor

25 While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab.(A) These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.(B) Thus Israel yoked itself to the Baal of Peor, and the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel.(C)

Read full chapter

32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods.(A) 33 They shall not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”(B)

Read full chapter

33 Do not be deceived:

“Bad company ruins good morals.”

Read full chapter

Marks of the True Christian

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good;

Read full chapter

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Read full chapter

32 They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.(A)

Read full chapter

11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.(A)

Read full chapter

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?(A)

Read full chapter

Shecaniah son of Jehiel, of the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra, saying, “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.(A) So now let us make a covenant with our God to send away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law.(B) Take action, for it is your duty, and we are with you; be strong, and do it.”(C) Then Ezra stood up and made the leading priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear that they would do as had been said. So they swore.(D)

Foreign Wives and Their Children Rejected

Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib, where he spent the night.[a] He did not eat bread or drink water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles.(E) They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem and that, if any did not come within three days, by order of the officials and the elders all their property should be forfeited and they themselves banned from the congregation of the exiles.

Then all the people of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. All the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain.(F) 10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have trespassed and married foreign women and so increased the guilt of Israel. 11 Now make confession to the Lord the God of your ancestors and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.”(G) 12 Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “It is so; we must do as you have said. 13 But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain; we cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a task for one day or for two, for many of us have transgressed in this matter. 14 Let our officials represent the whole assembly, and let all in our towns who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every town, until the fierce wrath of our God on this account is averted from us.”(H) 15 Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levites supported them.

16 Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men,[b] heads of families, according to their families, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter.(I) 17 By the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 10.6 1 Esdras 9.2: Heb where he went
  2. 10.16 Syr: Heb And there were selected Ezra,

12 Therefore, do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’(A)

Read full chapter

He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Read full chapter

Jehu son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, wrath has gone out against you from the Lord.(A)

Read full chapter

Ahab Marries Jezebel and Worships Baal

31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took as his wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians and went and served Baal and worshiped him.(A) 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal that he built in Samaria.(B) 33 Ahab also made a sacred pole.[a] Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him.(C)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 16.33 Or Asherah

After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, “Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him in order to subdue him, and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”(A) So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes your strength so great and how you could be bound, so that one could subdue you.” Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried out, then I shall become weak and be like anyone else.” Then the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried out, and she bound him with them. While men were lying in wait in an inner chamber, she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of fiber snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and told me lies; please tell me how you could be bound.”(B) 11 He said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like anyone else.” 12 So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” (The men lying in wait were in an inner chamber.) But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

13 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies; tell me how you could be bound.” He said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like anyone else.”(C) 14 So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web[a] and made them tight with the pin. Then she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what makes your strength so great.”(D) 16 Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day and pestered him, he was tired to death. 17 So he told her his whole secret and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak and be like anyone else.”(E)

18 When Delilah realized that he had told her his whole secret, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “This time come up, for he has told his whole secret to me.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. 19 She let him fall asleep on her lap, and she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. He began to weaken,[b] and his strength left him.(F) 20 Then she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” When he awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.(G) 21 So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he ground at the mill in the prison.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 16.14 Compare Gk: Heb lacks and make it tight . . . into the web
  2. 16.19 Gk: Heb She began to torment him

and they took their daughters as wives for themselves, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.(A)

Othniel

The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord their God and serving the Baals and the Asherahs.(B)

Read full chapter

And his soul was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.

Read full chapter

24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.(A)

Read full chapter