Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. {strangers: Heb. strange children}

And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. {have taken: Heb. have caused to dwell, or, have brought back}

Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,

For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? {is it} not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that {are} upon the face of the earth.

Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. {by...: Heb. after them}

An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever:

And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, did eat,

But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.

And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.

But did {that which was} evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

But thou shalt utterly destroy them; {namely}, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:

Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man {is} not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.

Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean {thing}; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.

For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. {Milcom: also called, Molech}

Now Tobiah the Ammonite {was} by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.

When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

And that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away. {forfeited: Heb. devoted}

For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, {and} Hittites; {together...: or, beside}

And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever; {they...: Heb. there was read} {audience: Heb. ears}

When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD'S {house}. {in the...: or, at the door}

The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.

But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites {is} not yet full.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

But it came to pass, {that} when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, {and} that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth, {were made up: Heb. ascended}

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, did eat,

And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons:

In those days also saw I Jews {that} had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, {and} of Moab: {had...: Heb. had made to dwell with them}

That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they {were} fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. {loved: or, ought to love}

And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell:

And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.

And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity {is} of the land of Canaan; thy father {was} an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. {birth: Heb. cutting out, or, habitation}

Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?

And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who {were} weeping {before} the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which {were} on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which {were} by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, {even} these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you:

Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her. {harlot: Heb. a woman an harlot}

Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.

And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken strange wives: {namely}, of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren; Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.

And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding;

And I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use {this} proverb against thee, saying, As {is} the mother, {so is} her daughter.

Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. {by: Heb. by the hand of} {from...: Heb. from mouth to mouth}

And Joshua answered them, If thou {be} a great people, {then} get thee up to the wood {country}, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee. {giants: or, Rephaims}