³ Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,^(A)

² 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)

¹⁵ You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice,^{(A) 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.^(B)

Mixed Marriages Condemned

²³ In those days also I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab,^{(A) 24} and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah but spoke the language of various peoples. ²⁵ And I contended with them and cursed them and beat some of the men and pulled out their hair, and I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.^{(B) 26} Did not King Solomon of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin.^{(C) 27} Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”^(D)

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)

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,

Denunciation of Mixed Marriages

9 After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.^{(A) 2} For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons. Thus the holy seed has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands, and in this faithlessness the officials and leaders have led the way.”^(B)

⁶ 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

⁷ 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)

² the sons of God saw that they were fair, and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.^{(A) 3} Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide^[a] in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.”^(B)