Intermarriage with Neighboring Peoples
And when these things were completed, the officers drew near to me, saying, “The people Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands — according to their abominations: of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Ammonite, the Moabite, the Egyptian, and the Amorite.
For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and the holy seed has mingled itself with the peoples of the lands; and the hand of the officers and the deputies has been first in this breaking of faith.”
And when I heard this word, I tore my garment and my robe, and I pulled out hair from my head and my beard, and I sat desolate.
And to me were gathered all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, over the broken faith of the exile; and I sat desolate until the evening offering.
Ezra’s Prayer of Confession
And at the evening offering I rose up from my humiliation, with my garment and my robe torn, and I bowed down on my knees, and spread out my palms to the LORD my God.
And I said: “My God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face, my God, to you; for our iniquities have multiplied over our head, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens.
From the days of our fathers we have been in great guilt to this day; and in our iniquities we have been given — we, our kings, our priests — into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder, and to shame of face, as it is this day.
And now, for a little moment there has been favor from the LORD our God, to leave us an escaped remnant, and to give us a tent-peg in his holy place — that our God might light up our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our slavery.
For we are slaves; yet in our slavery our God has not abandoned us, but has extended loyal love to us before the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to raise up the house of our God and to make its ruins stand, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
And now, what shall we say, our God, after this? For we have abandoned your commandments,
which you commanded by the hand of your servants the prophets, saying: ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land of impurity, by the impurity of the peoples of the lands, by their abominations, with which they have filled it from mouth to mouth in their uncleanness.
And now, do not give your daughters to their sons, and do not take their daughters for your sons, and do not seek their peace or their good, forever — so that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it as a possession to your sons forever.’
And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt — for you, our God, have held back, lower than our iniquity deserves, and have given us an escaped remnant like this —
shall we again break your commandments, and intermarry with the peoples of these abominations? Would you not be angry with us to the point of finishing us, with no remnant and no escape?
LORD, God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left an escaped remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before you in our guilt — for there is no standing before you because of this.”