mixed race marriage

²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither servant nor free; there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

⁴³Yet, because you saw the iron mingled with pottery from the earth, they will indeed be combined together with the offspring of man, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron cannot be mixed with earthenware.

²⁶And he has made, out of one, every family of man: to live upon the face of the entire earth, determining the appointed seasons and the limits of their habitation,

³And you shall not associate with them in marriage. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor accept his daughter for your son.

¹Then, after these things were completed, the leaders came to me, saying: “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, have not been separated from the peoples of the lands and from their abominations, especially those of the Canaanites, and Hittites, and Perizzites, and Jebusites, and Ammonites, and Moabites, and Egyptians, and Amorites. ²For they have taken from their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and they have mixed a holy lineage with the peoples of the lands. And even the hand of the leaders and the magistrates has been first in this transgression.”

¹⁹Observe my laws. You shall not cause your cattle to breed with other kinds of animals. You shall not sow your field with diverse seeds. You shall not be clothed with a garment which has been woven from two things.

¹⁴Do not choose to bear the yoke with unbelievers. For how can justice be a participant with iniquity? Or how can the fellowship of light be a participant with darkness?

³And you shall not associate with them in marriage. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor accept his daughter for your son. ⁴For she will seduce your son, so that he will not follow me, and so that he will instead serve foreign gods. And the fury of the Lord will be enraged, and he will quickly destroy you.

¹⁶Neither shall you take a wife for your son from their daughters, lest, after they themselves have fornicated, they may cause your sons also to fornicate with their gods.

¹But king Solomon loved many foreign women, including the daughter of Pharaoh, and women of Moab, and of Ammon, and of Idumea, and of Sidon, and of the Hittites. ²These were of the nations about whom the Lord said to the sons of Israel: “You shall not enter to them, and none of them shall enter to anyone of yours. For they will most certainly turn aside your hearts, so that you follow their gods.” And yet, to these Solomon was joined with a greatly enflamed love. ³And for him, there were seven hundred wives, as if they were queens, and three hundred concubines. And the women turned aside his heart. ⁴And when now he was old, his heart was perverted by the women, so that he followed strange gods. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. ⁵For Solomon worshipped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites. ⁶And Solomon did what was not pleasing in the sight of the Lord. And he did not continue to follow the Lord, as his father David did.

²³But also in those days, I saw some Jews taking wives from the Ashdodites, and the Ammonites, and the Moabites. ²⁴And their sons spoke partly in the speech of Ashdod, and they did not know how to speak the Jewish language, and they were speaking according to the language of one people or another. ²⁵And I put them under oath, and I cursed them. And I struck some of their men, and I shaved off their hair, and I made them swear to God that they would not give their daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for their sons, nor for themselves, saying: ²⁶“Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin in this kind of thing? And certainly, among many nations, there was no king similar to him, and he was beloved of his God, and God set him as king over all of Israel. And yet foreign women led even him into sin! ²⁷So how could we disobey and do all this great evil, so that we would transgress against our God, and take foreign wives?”

¹Therefore, as Ezra was praying, and imploring, and weeping in this way, and was prostrate before the temple of God, an exceedingly great assembly of men and women and children was gathered to him from Israel. And the people wept with a great weeping. ²And Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, from the sons of Elam, responded and said to Ezra: “We have sinned against our God, and have taken foreign wives from the peoples of the land. And now, if there is repentance within Israel over this, ³let us strike a pact with the Lord our God, so that we may cast aside all the wives, and those who have been born from them, in accord with the will of the Lord, and of those who fear the precept of the Lord our God. So let it be done, according to the law. ⁴Rise up. It is for you to discern, and we shall be with you. Be strengthened and act.” ⁵Therefore, Ezra rose up, and he caused the leaders of the priests and the Levites, and all of Israel, to swear that they would act in accord with this word. And they swore it. ⁶And Ezra rose up before the house of God, and he went away to the chamber of Jehohanan, the son of Eliashib, and he entered into it. He did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. For he was mourning the transgression of those who had arrived from the captivity.