The Hyperlinked Bible
Intertextuality Pair
Allusion
Later text
Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to the guilt of Israel. Now, therefore, make a confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do His will. Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from your foreign wives."
Earlier text
"If someone acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against any of the LORD's holy things, he must bring his guilt offering to the LORD: an unblemished ram from the flock, of proper value in silver shekels according to the sanctuary shekel; it is a guilt offering.
Ezra 10:10-11 addresses the community's intermarriage as unfaithfulness (מַעַל, ma'al), the same term used in Leviticus 5:15 for "unfaithfulness regarding the LORD's holy things" requiring a guilt offering (אָשָׁם, asham). By framing intermarriage with the same term Leviticus uses for sacrilege against holy objects, Ezra characterizes the mixed marriages as trespass against YHWH's holiness, not merely a social problem. The required response parallels Leviticus: just as sacrilege against holy things demands restitution and an asham offering, so the community's trespass against the holy seed (זֶרַע הַקֹּדֶשׁ, zera haqqodesh) demands corporate repentance and separation.