that You gave through Your servants the prophets, saying: 'The land that you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the impurity of its peoples and the abominations with which they have filled it from end to end. Now, therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and may eat the good things of the land, leaving it as an inheritance to your sons forever.'
For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled.
Significance
Ezra 9:11-12 presents Ezra's prayer as a composite quotation attributed to "Your servants the prophets," drawing on the language of Leviticus 18:27 among other texts. Leviticus 18:27 warns that the land was defiled (טָמֵא, tame) by the abominations (תּוֹעֵבוֹת, to'evot) of its former inhabitants, and Ezra applies this identical terminology to the post-exilic situation: the peoples of the land have filled it with their uncleanness (נִדָּה, niddah) through their abominations. The prophetic warning not to "give your daughters in marriage to their sons" echoes the original prohibition's logic: intermarriage will lead to adopting the abominations that defiled the land and caused its prior inhabitants to be expelled, threatening the same consequences for Israel again.
