Text: Ezra 9:1
OT Text Referred to: Deuteronomy 7:1-3
Subject: Intermarriage prohibition violated
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Deuteronomy 7:1-3 commands Israel not to intermarry with the seven Canaanite nations, warning that foreign wives will "turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods." Ezra 9:1 reports that the returned exiles have violated this very command: "The people of Israel... have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites..." Ezra's list of nations deliberately echoes the Deuteronomic catalogue to establish that the post-exilic community is repeating the pre-exilic sin that led to exile in the first place. Ezra's horrified prayer of confession (9:6-15) presupposes the Deuteronomic prohibition as the standard against which this failure is measured, making intermarriage with pagans a sign of unreformed covenant unfaithfulness.