³ Therefore ^(A)let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and ^(B)their children, according to the counsel of my lord^[a] and of ^(C)those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done ^(D)according to the Law.

^2 (A)and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must ^(B)devote them to complete destruction.^{[a] (C)}You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ^3 (D)You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,

⁴ Then all who ^(A)trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat ^(B)appalled until the evening sacrifice.

¹² To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. ¹³ If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.

¹² For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you ^(A)and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, ¹³ know for certain that ^(B)the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, ^(C)but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.

^38 [a] “Because of all this ^(A)we make a firm covenant in writing; on ^(B)the sealed document are the names of^[b] our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

²¹ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found. For great is ^(A)the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book.”