Ezra 9:12

12 Whatever you do, don't give your daughters in marriage to their sons nor marry your sons to their daughters. Don't cultivate their good opinion; don't make over them and get them to like you so you can make a lot of money and build up a tidy estate to hand down to your children.'

Ezra 9:12 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 9:12

Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, nor
take their daughters unto your sons
That is, in marriage, see ( Deuteronomy 7:3 ) , where the prohibition is expressed in the same language:

nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever;
that is, as long as they continue in their idolatries and impurities, see ( Deuteronomy 23:6 ) ,

that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it
for an inheritance to your children for ever;
that they might be strengthened and established in the land into which they were brought, and enjoy all the good things it produced, and leave their children in the possession of it, to hold at least until the Messiah came, see ( Isaiah 1:19 ) .

Ezra 9:12 In-Context

10 "And now, our God, after all this what can we say for ourselves? For we have thrown your commands to the wind,

11 the commands you gave us through your servants the prophets. They told us, 'The land you're taking over is a polluted land, polluted with the obscene vulgarities of the people who live there; they've filled it with their moral rot from one end to the other.

12 Whatever you do, don't give your daughters in marriage to their sons nor marry your sons to their daughters. Don't cultivate their good opinion; don't make over them and get them to like you so you can make a lot of money and build up a tidy estate to hand down to your children.'

13 And now this, on top of all we've already suffered because of our evil ways and accumulated guilt, even though you, dear God, punished us far less than we deserved and even went ahead and gave us this pres- ent escape.

14 Yet here we are, at it again, breaking your commandments by intermarrying with the people who practice all these obscenities! Are you angry to the point of wiping us out completely, without even a few stragglers, with no way out at all?