¹² So, therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor marry their daughters to your sons, and under no circumstances are you to seek their well-being or their wealth, so that you may remain strong, enjoying the best things the land has to give, and so that you may establish an inheritance for your children forever.’^[a]

¹³ “After all that has happened to us because of our evil behavior, and because of our great sin—considering that you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve^[b] and have given us this deliverance— ¹⁴ should we violate your commandments by intermarrying with the nations^[c] who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you had consumed us, with not even a remnant surviving^[d] to escape?