TSK · Ezra 9:1

In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.”

When the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, then you will keep this ceremony in this month.

For how will it be known then that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not by your going with us, so that we will be distinguished, I and your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?”

Warning against the Abominations of the Nations“‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations which I am about to drive out before you have been defiled with all these things.

For from the top of the rocks I see them; from the hills I watch them. Indeed, a nation that lives alone, and it will not be reckoned among the nations.

Just then one of the Israelites came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the plain view of Moses and of the whole community of the Israelites, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

After they have been destroyed from your presence, be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say,“How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.”

Instead you must utterly annihilate them– the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites– just as the LORD your God has commanded you,

for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you.

But if you ever turn away and make alliances with these nations that remain near you, and intermarry with them and establish friendly relations with them,

Solomon worshiped the Sidonian goddess Astarte and the detestable Ammonite god Milcom.

He did evil in the sight of the LORD and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations whom the LORD drove out ahead of the Israelites.

Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra:“We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the local peoples. Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard.

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them,“You have behaved in an unfaithful manner by taking foreign wives! This has contributed to the guilt of Israel.

(4:1) When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem had moved ahead and that the breaches had begun to be closed, they were very angry.

Further Reforms by Nehemiah On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people. They found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God,

Leave! Leave! Get out of there! Don’t touch anything unclean! Get out of it! Stay pure, you who carry the LORD’s holy items!

Then the officials and all the people rendered their verdict to the priests and the prophets. They said,“This man should not be condemned to die. For he has spoken to us under the authority of the LORD our God.”

Unequal Partners Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?