¹⁵ so that he will not defile his offspring among his people. I am the Lord, who makes him holy.’”

¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.^(A)

¹⁶ If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits^(A) is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁵ Has not the one God made you?^(A) You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring.^[a](B) So be on your guard,^(C) and do not be unfaithful^(D) to the wife of your youth.

¹¹ Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable^(A) thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves^(B) by marrying^(C) women who worship a foreign god.^(D)

²³ Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married^(A) women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.^{(B) 24} Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language^(C) of Judah. ²⁵ I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath^(D) in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.^{(E) 26} Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him.^(F) He was loved by his God,^(G) and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women.^{(H) 27} Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying^(I) foreign women?”

²⁸ One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib^(J) the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat^(K) the Horonite. And I drove him away from me.

²⁹ Remember^(L) them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.^(M)

² They have taken some of their daughters^(A) as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled^(B) the holy race^(C) with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”^(D)

⁸ Regard them as holy,^(A) because they offer up the food of your God.^(B) Consider them holy, because I the Lord am holy—I who make you holy.^(C)