Nehemiah 13 · a question people ask
How should the marriages of 13:23-27, and what Nehemiah did in 13:25, be read?
The chapter tells it in Nehemiah's own words. He saw "the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab" (13:23). "I contended with them, cursed them, struck certain of them, plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God" (13:25). And he asked, "Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?" (13:27). The book adds no word of its own for or against what 13:25 tells, and these notes add none. The chapter tells of an oath about what was to come, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves" (13:25), and near the end, "Thus I cleansed them from all foreigners" (13:30). It doesn't say what became of the marriages already made, and these notes don't guess. The book of Ezra tells of such marriages too: "We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land" (Ezra 10:2). Ezra 10's honest question, which begins with "to put away all the wives and those who are born of them" (Ezra 10:3), sets out the main ways Christians read such passages, each resting on its verses. It isn't repeated here. These notes don't pick among its views, and they apply neither Nehemiah 13 nor Ezra 10 to anyone's marriage today.
The verses
“In those days I also saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab;”
“I contended with them, cursed them, struck certain of them, plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves.”
“Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?””
“Thus I cleansed them from all foreigners and appointed duties for the priests and for the Levites, everyone in his work;”