After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, "The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. Indeed, the Israelites have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the people of the land. And the leaders and officials have taken the lead in this unfaithfulness!"
Observe what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
Significance
Ezra 9:1's catalog of abominable nations ("Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites") deliberately echoes Exodus 34:11's list of nations God promised to drive out before Israel. The Exodus passage immediately warns against making covenants with these peoples (34:12) and specifically prohibits taking "their daughters for your sons" (34:16). By using the same nation-list formula, Ezra frames the post-exilic intermarriage crisis as a repeat of the original covenantal prohibition: the returned community has done precisely what Exodus 34 forbade, mingling the "holy seed" (זֶרַע הַקֹּדֶשׁ, zera haqqodesh) with the peoples of the lands despite having been given a second chance after exile.
