Nehemiah 13:23-31

Mixed Marriages Forbidden

23 In those days I also saw that the Jews had 1married women from 2Ashdod, 3Ammon and Moab.
24 As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but the language of his own people.
25 So 4I contended with them and cursed them and 5struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and 6made them swear by God, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
26 "7Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? 8Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and 9he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin.
27 "Do we then hear about you that you have committed all this great evil 10by acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?"
28 Even one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of 11Sanballat the Horonite, so I drove him away from me.
29 12Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the 13covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
30 14Thus I purified them from everything foreign and appointed duties for the priests and the Levites, each in his task,
31 and I arranged 15for the supply of wood at appointed times and for the first fruits. 16Remember me, O my God, for good.

Cross References 16

  • 1. Exodus 34:11-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-5; Ezra 9:2; Nehemiah 10:30
  • 2. Nehemiah 4:7
  • 3. Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 13:1
  • 4. Nehemiah 13:11, 17
  • 5. Deuteronomy 25:2
  • 6. Nehemiah 10:29, 30
  • 7. 1 Kings 11:1
  • 8. 1 Kings 3:13; 2 Chronicles 1:12
  • 9. 2 Samuel 12:24, 25
  • 10. Ezra 10:2; Nehemiah 13:23
  • 11. Nehemiah 2:10, 19; Nehemiah 4:1
  • 12. Nehemiah 6:14
  • 13. Numbers 25:13
  • 14. Nehemiah 10:30
  • 15. Nehemiah 10:34
  • 16. Nehemiah 13:14, 22

Footnotes 5

  • [a]. Lit "given dwelling to"
  • [b]. Lit "according to the tongue of people and people"
  • [c]. Or "Is it reported"
  • [d]. Lit "giving dwelling to"
  • [e]. Lit "for the defilings of"
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