Chapter 9

Denunciation of Mixed Marriages. ¹ After these matters had been concluded, the leaders approached me and said: “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separated from the neighboring peoples with their abominable practices—the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. ² They have taken women of these nations as wives for themselves and their sons, and as a result, they have contaminated the holy race by such unions. In this regard the leaders and the magistrates have been the major offenders.”

Ezra’s Exhortation. ³ Upon hearing this news, I tore my tunic and cloak, after which I plucked hair from my beard and my head and sat down in a complete stupor until the evening sacrifice.