³ Now let us make a covenant^(A) before our God to send away^(B) all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law.

² and when the Lord your God has delivered^(A) them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy^(B) them totally.^[a](C) Make no treaty^(D) with them, and show them no mercy.^{(E) 3} Do not intermarry with them.^(F) Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

⁴ Then everyone who trembled^(A) at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled^(B) until the evening sacrifice.

¹² To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord):^(A) If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. ¹³ And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.

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^(A) and associate with them,^{(B) 13} then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out^(C) these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares^(D) and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes,^(E) until you perish from this good land,^(F) which the Lord your God has given you.

The Agreement of the People

³⁸ “In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement,^(A) putting it in writing,^(B) and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.”^[a]

²¹ “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that is poured out^(A) on us because those who have gone before us have not kept the word of the Lord; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book.”