²³ In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.^{(A) 24} Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples but could not speak Hebrew.^{[a](B) 25} I rebuked them, cursed them, beat some of their men, and pulled out their hair.^(C) I forced them to take an oath^(D) before God and said: “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or yourselves!^{(E) 26} Didn’t King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations. He was loved by his God and God made him king over all Israel, yet foreign women drew him into sin.^{(F) 27} Why then should we hear about you doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?”^(G)

²⁸ Even one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of Eliashib the high priest,^(H) had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite.^(I) So I drove him away from me.^(J)

²⁹ Remember them, my God, for defiling the priesthood as well as the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.^(K)