Keluaran 23:32-33

23:32 “You must make no covenant with them or with their gods. 23:33 They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare ¹  to you.”

Keluaran 34:16

34:16 and you then take ²  his daughters for your sons, and when his daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods as well.

Ulangan 7:3-4

7:3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 7:4 for they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will erupt against you and he will quickly destroy you.

Yosua 23:12-13

23:12 But if you ever turn away and make alliances with ³  these nations that remain near you, ⁴  and intermarry with them and establish friendly relations with them, ⁵  23:13 know for certain that the Lord our God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. They will trap and ensnare you; ⁶  they will be a whip that tears ⁷  your sides and thorns that blind ⁸  your eyes until you disappear ⁹  from this good land the Lord your God gave you.

Ezra 9:12

9:12 Therefore do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, and do not take their daughters in marriage for your sons. Do not ever seek their peace or welfare, so that you may be strong and may eat the good of the land and may leave it as an inheritance for your children ¹⁰  forever.’

Ezra 10:2-17

10:2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, ¹¹  addressed Ezra:

“We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying ¹²  foreign women from the local peoples. ¹³  Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard. ¹⁴  10:3 Therefore let us enact ¹⁵  a covenant with our God to send away all these women and their offspring, in keeping with your counsel, my lord, ¹⁶  and that of those who respect ¹⁷  the commandments of our God. And let it be done according to the law. 10:4 Get up, for this matter concerns you. We are with you, so be strong and act decisively!”

10:5 So Ezra got up and made the leading priests and Levites and all Israel take an oath to carry out this plan. ¹⁸  And they all took a solemn oath. 10:6 Then Ezra got up from in front of the temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he stayed ¹⁹  there, he did not eat food or drink water, for he was in mourning over the infidelity of the exiles.

10:7 A proclamation ²⁰  was circulated ²¹  throughout Judah and Jerusalem ²²  that all the exiles were to be assembled in Jerusalem. 10:8 Everyone who did not come within three days would thereby forfeit all his property, in keeping with the counsel of the officials and the elders. Furthermore, he himself would be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.

10:9 All the men of Judah and Benjamin were gathered in Jerusalem within the three days. (It was in the ninth month, on the twentieth day of that month.) All the people sat in the square at the temple of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the rains.

10:10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have behaved in an unfaithful manner by taking foreign wives! This has contributed to the guilt of Israel. 10:11 Now give praise to the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the local residents ²³  and from these foreign wives.”

10:12 All the assembly replied in a loud voice: “We will do just as you have said! ²⁴  10:13 However, the people are numerous and it is the rainy season. ²⁵  We are unable to stand here outside. Furthermore, this business cannot be resolved in a day or two, for we have sinned greatly in this matter. 10:14 Let our leaders take steps ²⁶  on behalf of all the assembly. Let all those in our towns who have married foreign women come at an appointed time, and with them the elders of each town and its judges, until the hot anger of our God is turned away from us in this matter.”

10:15 Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah were ²⁷  against this, assisted by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite. 10:16 So the exiles proceeded accordingly. Ezra the priest separated out ²⁸  by name men who were leaders in their family groups. ²⁹  They sat down to consider this matter on the first day of the tenth month, 10:17 and on the first day of the first month they finished considering all the men who had married foreign wives.

Maleakhi 2:11

2:11 Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. ³⁰  For Judah has profaned ³¹  the holy things that the Lord loves and has turned to a foreign god! ³² 

[23:33]  ¹ tn The idea of the “snare” is to lure them to judgment; God is apparently warning about contact with the Canaanites, either in worship or in business. They were very syncretistic, and so it would be dangerous to settle among them.

[34:16]  ² tn In the construction this verb would follow as a possible outcome of the last event, and so remain in the verbal sequence. If the people participate in the festivals of the land, then they will intermarry, and that could lead to further involvement with idolatry.

[23:12]  ³ tn Heb “and hug.”

[23:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “the remnant of the these nations, these nations that are with you.”

[23:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “and go into them, and they into you.”

[23:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “be a trap and a snare to you.”

[23:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “in.”

[23:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “thorns in your eyes.”

[23:13]  ⁹ tn Or “perish.”

[9:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “sons”; cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NLT “children”; NCV, TEV “descendants.”

[10:2]  ¹¹ tc The translation reads with the Qere, many medieval Hebrew MSS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate עֵילָם (’elam, “Elam”) rather than the reading עוֹלָם (’olam, “eternity”) found in the MT.

[10:2]  ¹² tn Heb “in that we have given a dwelling to.” So also in vv. 14, 17, 18.

[10:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

[10:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “upon this.”

[10:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “cut.”

[10:3]  ¹⁶ tn The MT vocalizes this word as a plural, which could be understood as a reference to God. But the context seems to suggest that a human lord is intended. The apparatus of BHS suggests repointing the word as a singular (“my lord”), but this is unnecessary. The plural (“my lords”) can be understood in an honorific sense even when a human being is in view. Most English versions regard this as a reference to Ezra, so the present translation supplies “your” before “counsel” to make this clear.

[10:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “who tremble at”; NAB, NIV “who fear.”

[10:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to do according to this plan.”

[10:6]  ¹⁹ tc The translation reads וַיָּלֶן (vayyalen, “and he stayed”) rather than the reading וַיֵּלֶךְ (vayyelekh, “and he went”) of the MT. Cf. the LXX.

[10:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “voice.”

[10:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “they sent.”

[10:7]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[10:11]  ²³ tn Heb “the peoples of the land.”

[10:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “thus according to your word [singular = Qere] concerning us, to do.”

[10:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the time [is] rain showers.”

[10:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “stand.”

[10:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “stood.”

[10:16]  ²⁸ tc The translation reads the Hiphil singular וַיַּבְדֵּל לוֹ (vayyavdel lo, “separated for himself”) rather than the Niphal plural וַיִּבָּדְלוּ (vayyibbadÿlu, “were separated”) of the MT.

[10:16]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers, to the house of their fathers, and all of them by name.”

[2:11]  ³⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:11]  ³¹ tn Or perhaps “secularized”; cf. NIV “desecrated”; TEV, NLT “defiled”; CEV “disgraced.”

[2:11]  ³² tn Heb “has married the daughter of a foreign god.” Marriage is used here as a metaphor to describe Judah’s idolatry, that is, her unfaithfulness to the Lord and “remarriage” to pagan gods. But spiritual intermarriage found expression in literal, physical marriage as well, as vv. 14-16 indicate.