Ezra 9 and 10
All scripture is quoted from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted. Ezra 9 1 After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. “the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites….” This list in Ezra would have immediately reminded Ezra of God’s command in Deuteronomy 7:1-4 , in which God commands that those nations that inhabited Canaan were to be driven out and that the Israelites were not to intermarry with them, and if they did intermarry then they would be turned away from the God of Israel. Five of the eight pagan nations listed here in Ezra 9:1 are in the list in Deuteronomy 7:1 , and the Israelites who lived in the land were living according to ungodly pagan practices. No w...
