23
Also during this time I saw the Judeans who had married women from Ashdod, 'Amon and Mo'av;
24
and their children, who spoke half in the language of Ashdod and couldn't speak in the language the Judeans spoke but only in the language of each people.
25
I disputed with them and cursed them, and I beat some of them up and pulled out their hair. Then I made them swear by God, "You will not give your daughters as wives for their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves.
26
Wasn't it by doing these things that Shlomo king of Isra'el sinned? There was no king like him among many nations, and his God loved him, and God made him king over all Isra'el; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin.
27
Are we to give in to you and let you continue in this very great evil, breaking faith with our God by marrying foreign women?"
28
One of the sons of Yoyada the son of Elyashiv, the cohen hagadol, had become son-in-law to Sanvalat the Horoni; so I drove him out of my presence.
29
My God, remember them; because they have defiled the office of cohen and the covenant of the cohanim and L'vi'im.