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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
13:23-29 The Problem of Intermarriage Again. Ignoring covenantal commitments (like Sabbath keeping) that should have sustained Israelite identity had led to intermarriage with persons of other religions.
13:23-27 Ezra's measures (Ezra 9-10) apparently had little lasting effect. The real problem of mixed marriages is illustrated vividly here, as the children of these unions, in losing the language of Judah (Neh. 13:24), were in effect losing their entire religious heritage.
13:25-27 In his violent but symbolically powerful reaction, Nehemiah calls the people back to the Mosaic law (Deut. 7:1-5) and points to the example of Solomon, who was turned from faithfulness to the Lord by his foreign wives (1 Kings 11).
13:28 The spiritual adulteration through intermarriage has even affected the family of the high priest Eliashib, who once more appears on the side of religious laxity.
13:29 Remember them. See also 6:14. covenant of the priesthood. A reference to the special obligations laid on the priests and Levites, for the sake of the whole people (cf. 1 Sam. 2:27-36; Mal. 2:4-9).
