Mixed Marriages Condemned

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

Denunciation of Mixed Marriages

9 After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.^{(A) 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.”^(B)

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

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

The Temple of the Living God

¹⁴ Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? Or what partnership is there between light and darkness?^(A)

Foreigners Separated from Israel

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

⁴⁴ All these had married foreign women, and they sent them away with their children.^[a](A)

^7 [a]But when 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 the gaps were beginning to be closed, they were very angry^(A)

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

The Philistines and the Ark

5 When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod;^(A)