Ezra’s Prayer About Intermarriage

9 After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate^(A) from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites,^(B) Ammonites,^(C) Moabites,^(D) Egyptians and Amorites.^(E)

²³ Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married^(A) women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.^(B)

⁷ I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister^(A) Judah saw it.^{(B) 8} I gave faithless Israel^(C) her certificate of divorce^(D) and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear;^(E) she also went out and committed adultery. ⁹ Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land^(F) and committed adultery^(G) with stone^(H) and wood.^(I)