Thematic Bible: Who not to marry


Thematic Bible



In those days also I saw Jews who had married wives from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak the Hebrew, but in the language of each people. And I contended with them and reviled them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair and made them swear by God, saying, You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. read more.
Did not Solomon king of Israel act treacherously against God and miss the mark on account of such women? Among many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; yet strange women even caused him to sin [when he was old he turned treacherously away from the Lord to other gods, and God rent his kingdom from him]. Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying strange (heathen) women?

Afterward, the officials came to me and said, The Israelites and the priests and Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, but have committed the abominations of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. For they have taken as wives some of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy offspring have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands. Indeed, the officials and chief men have been foremost in this wicked act and direct violation [of God's will].

When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess and has plucked away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, And when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you smite them, then you must utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, or show mercy to them. You shall not make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son nor shall you take his daughter for your son, read more.
For they will turn away your sons from following Me, that they may serve other gods; so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and He will destroy you quickly.

A long time after that, when the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies round about, and Joshua had grown old and advanced in years, Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders, heads, judges, and officers, and said to them, I am old and advanced in years. And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; for it is the Lord your God Who has fought for you. read more.
Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, with all the nations I have cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea on the west. The Lord your God will thrust them out from before you and drive them out of your sight, and you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you. So be very courageous and steadfast to keep and do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning not aside from it to the right hand or the left, That you may not mix with these nations that remain among you, or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them. But cling to the Lord your God as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations; and as for you, no man has been able to withstand you to this day. One man of you shall put to flight a thousand, for it is the Lord your God Who fights for you, as He promised you. Be very watchful of yourselves, therefore, to love the Lord your God. For if you turn back and adhere to the remnant of these nations left among you and make marriages with them, you marrying their women and they yours,

And Shecaniah [II] son of Jehiel [one of the congregation], of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra: We have broken faith and dealt treacherously against our God and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land; yet now there is still hope for Israel in spite of this thing. Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the foreign wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the command of our God; and let it be done according to the Law.

Join now, with their brethren, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's Law which was given to Moses the servant of God and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes: We shall not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.