²² You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman;^(A) it is detestable.^{(B) 23} You are not to have sexual intercourse with^[a] any animal, defiling yourself with it; a woman is not to present herself to an animal to mate with it;^(C) it is a perversion.

²⁴ “Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves by all these things. ²⁵ The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.^{(D) 26} But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances. You must not commit any of these detestable things—not the native or the foreigner who lives among you. ²⁷ For the men who were in the land prior to you have committed all these detestable things, and the land has become defiled. ²⁸ If you defile the land, it will vomit^(E) you out as it has vomited out the nations that were before you. ²⁹ Any person who does any of these detestable practices must be cut off from his people. ³⁰ You must keep My instruction to not do any of the detestable customs^(F) that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them; I am Yahweh your God.”

Israel’s Intermarriage with Pagans

9 After these things had been done, the leaders approached me and said: “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves^(A) from the surrounding peoples whose detestable practices^(B) are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.^{(C) 2} Indeed, the Israelite men^[a] have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed^(D) has become mixed with the surrounding peoples.^(E) The leaders^[b] and officials have taken the lead in this unfaithfulness!”^{(F) 3} When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and robe, pulled out some of the hair from my head and beard, and sat down devastated.^(G)

Ezra’s Confession

⁴ Everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel^(H) gathered around me, because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles,^(I) while I sat devastated until the evening offering.^{(J) 5} At the evening offering, I got up from my humiliation, with my tunic and robe torn. Then I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to Yahweh my God.^{(K) 6} And I said:^(L)

⁴ Now before this, Eliashib the priest^(A) had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God.^(B) He was a relative^[a] of Tobiah^{(C) 5} and had prepared a large room for him where they had previously stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, and the tenths of grain, new wine, and oil^(D) prescribed for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests.^(E)

⁶ While all this was happening, I was not in Jerusalem, because I had returned to King Artaxerxes^(F) of Babylon^(G) in the thirty-second year of his reign.^(H) It was only later that I asked the king for a leave of absence^{(I) 7} so I could return to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done on behalf of Tobiah by providing him a room in the courts of God’s house. ⁸ I was greatly displeased and threw all of Tobiah’s household possessions out of the room. ⁹ I ordered that the rooms be purified,^(J) and I had the articles of the house of God restored there, along with the grain offering and frankincense.^(K)