²³ In those days also I saw the Jews ^(A)who had married women ^(B)of Ashdod, ^(C)Ammon, and ^(D)Moab.

Ezra Prays About Intermarriage

9 After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the ^(A)Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands ^(B)with their abominations, from the ^(C)Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. ^2 (D)For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the ^(E)holy race^[a] has ^(F)mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.”

^30 (A)We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.

¹⁰ And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel.

The Temple of the Living God

^14 (A)Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For ^(B)what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or ^(C)what fellowship has light with darkness?

Nehemiah's Final Reforms

13 On that day ^(A)they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written ^(B)that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,

⁴⁴ All these had married foreign women, and some of the women ^(A)had even borne children.^[a]

^7 [a] But when ^(A)Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry.

¹¹ which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with ^(A)their uncleanness. ^12 (B)Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land ^(C)and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’