Now therefore don’t give your daughters to their sons. Don’t take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever; that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’
Parallel translations
- KJV Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever.
- BSB Now, therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and may eat the good things of the land, leaving it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’
- ESV Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’
- NKJV Now therefore, do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons; and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.’
- NASB So now do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, so that you may be strong and may eat the good things of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’
- NLT Don’t let your daughters marry their sons! Don’t take their daughters as wives for your sons. Don’t ever promote the peace and prosperity of those nations. If you follow these instructions, you will be strong and will enjoy the good things the land produces, and you will leave this prosperity to your children forever.’
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The prophetic command was not to intermarry with or seek the welfare of these nations, so that Israel might prosper and pass the land to their children. Obedience was tied to covenant blessing.
Overview
Ezra cited God's instruction against forming binding alliances through marriage with idolatrous peoples, a safeguard for Israel's faith and future. The prohibition aimed at preserving wholehearted devotion to God, not at promoting hostility. The principle endures for believers, who are warned against entangling unions that compromise their devotion to Christ while still loving and seeking the good of all people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Deut 7:3neither shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son.
- Deut 23:6You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.
- Josh 23:12–13“But if you do at all go back, and hold fast to the remnant of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you;
- Prov 13:22A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored for the righteous.
- Exod 34:15–16“Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice;
- 2 Jn 1:10–11If anyone comes to you, and doesn’t bring this teaching, don’t receive him into your house, and don’t welcome him,
- Prov 20:7A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him.
- Ezra 9:2For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy offspring have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands. Yes, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass.”
- Exod 23:32You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
- Isa 1:19If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
- Gen 18:18–19since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?
- Ps 112:1–2Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, who delights greatly in his commandments.
- Josh 1:6–9“Be strong and courageous; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
- Deut 6:1–2Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it;
- 2 Chr 19:2Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked, and love those who hate Yahweh? Because of this, wrath is on you from before Yahweh.
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Christ at the center
The return from exile and the rebuilt altar keep alive the hope of a greater restoration — the true return from our deeper exile of sin accomplished by Christ.
How Ezra 9:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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