For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his house after him, that they may keep the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice, that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken to him.

These sought their listing among those who were registered by genealogy, but they were not found; therefore they were considered desecrated, and excluded from the priesthood.

For they have taken some of their daughters for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands. Indeed, the hand of the rulers and officials has been foremost in this treachery.

In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves.

Should we then hear of your doing all this great evil, acting treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?

Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

Judah has dealt treacherously, and has done an abomination in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Jehovah, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

And has He not made them one? Yet the remnant of the Spirit is in him. And why one? He was seeking a seed of God. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and do not deal treacherously with the wife of your youth.

For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.