¹⁵ that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the Lord; I sanctify him.”

¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through the brother.^[a] Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.^(A)

¹⁶ If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy.

¹⁵ Did God^[a] not make them one, flesh with spirit in it? And what does the one desire? Godly offspring. So look to yourselves, and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his youth.^[b](A)

¹¹ Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.^(A)

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)

²⁸ And one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; I chased him away from me.^{(E) 29} Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priests and the Levites.^(F)

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.”^(A)

⁶² These looked for their entries in the genealogical records, but they were not found there, so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean;^(A)

⁸ and you shall treat them as holy, since they offer the food of your God; they shall be holy to you, for I the Lord, I who sanctify you, am holy.

¹⁹ No, for I have chosen^[a] him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”^(A)