by order of the leaders of the people. If any failed to come within three days, all their property would be confiscated, and they would lose their right to be members of the community.

When the leaders of Judah heard what had happened, they hurried from the royal palace to the Temple and took their places at the New Gate.

Then the leaders and the people said to the priests and the prophets, "This man spoke to us in the name of the LORD our God; he should not be put to death."

The sacrifices were eaten by all the Israelites who had returned from exile and by all those who had given up the pagan ways of the other people who were living in the land and who had come to worship the LORD God of Israel.

For seven days they joyfully celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread. They were full of joy because the LORD had made the emperor of Assyria favorable to them, so that he supported them in their work of rebuilding the Temple of the God of Israel.

Ezra the priest stood up and spoke to them. He said, "You have been faithless and have brought guilt on Israel by marrying foreign women.

Now then, confess your sins to the LORD, the God of your ancestors, and do what pleases him. Separate yourselves from the foreigners living in our land and get rid of your foreign wives."

How will anyone know that you are pleased with your people and with me if you do not go with us? Your presence with us will distinguish us from any other people on earth."

From the high rocks I can see them; I can watch them from the hills. They are a nation that lives alone; They know they are blessed more than other nations.

(SEE 9:1)

When the people of Israel heard this law read, they excluded all foreigners from the community.

Be sure to leave Babylonia, all you that carry the Temple equipment. Touch no forbidden thing; keep yourselves holy and leave.

Do not try to work together as equals with unbelievers, for it cannot be done. How can right and wrong be partners? How can light and darkness live together?

How can God's temple come to terms with pagan idols? For we are the temple of the living God! As God himself has said, "I will make my home with my people and live among them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

Do not follow the practices of the people of Egypt, where you once lived, or of the people in the land of Canaan, where I am now taking you.

Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these acts, for that is how the pagans made themselves unclean, those pagans who lived in the land before you and whom the LORD is driving out so that you can go in.

They did all these disgusting things and made the land unclean, but you must not do them. All of you, whether Israelites or foreigners living with you, must keep the LORD's laws and commands,

and then the land will not reject you, as it rejected the pagans who lived there before you.

And the LORD said, "Obey the commands I give and do not follow the practices of the people who lived in the land before you, and do not make yourselves unclean by doing any of these things. I am the LORD your God."

After the LORD destroys those nations, make sure that you don't follow their religious practices, because that would be fatal. Don't try to find out how they worship their gods, so that you can worship in the same way.

Do not worship the LORD your God in the way they worship their gods, for in the worship of their gods they do all the disgusting things that the LORD hates. They even sacrifice their children in the fires on their altars.

"When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, don't follow the disgusting practices of the nations that are there.

Following the disgusting practices of the nations whom the LORD had driven out of the land as his people advanced, Manasseh sinned against the LORD.

but they intermarried with them and adopted their pagan ways.

What about you? You call yourself a Jew; you depend on the Law and boast about God;

you are sure that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in darkness,

You teach others---why don't you teach yourself ? You preach, "Do not steal"---but do you yourself steal?

You boast about having God's law---but do you bring shame on God by breaking his law?

If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised.

It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because I will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished."

including the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

My angel will go ahead of you and take you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them.

Completely destroy all the people: the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the LORD ordered you to do.

Kill them, so that they will not make you sin against the LORD by teaching you to do all the disgusting things that they do in the worship of their gods.

"No Ammonite or Moabite---or any of their descendants, even in the tenth generation---may be included among the LORD's people.

But the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam; instead he turned the curse into a blessing, because he loved you.

Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides the daughter of the king of Egypt he married Hittite women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon.

He worshiped Astarte, the goddess of Sidon, and Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon.

On the mountain east of Jerusalem he built a place to worship Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, and a place to worship Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon.

Tobiah was standing there beside him, and he added, "What kind of wall could they ever build? Even a fox could knock it down!"

Sanballat, Tobiah, and the people of Arabia, Ammon, and Ashdod heard that we were making progress in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem and that the gaps in the wall were being closed, and they became very angry.

When the Law of Moses was being read aloud to the people, they came to the passage that said that no Ammonite or Moabite was ever to be permitted to join God's people.

When the people of Israel heard this law read, they excluded all foreigners from the community.

When the Israelites were camped at Acacia Valley, the men began to have sexual intercourse with the Moabite women who were there.

Baal of Peor. So the LORD was angry with them