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Judah in the south which at that times was ruled by Azariyah. But one thing
seems certain and that is that these lovers were all “kin” in the sense of
them all being Semitic in origin. This, of course, does not mean all other
Semitic women are of an acceptable gene pool for taking wives from.

(B) Israelite men having part-Israelite women or non-Israelite Semites as
sexual partners.

About an Israelite male having sexual relationships with part-Israelite women,
a presentation can be made for acceptability in certain cases.

6. Notice what we find in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 23:7-8.

COMMENT: The word “abhor” is used in the ritualistic sense, (Piel Stem). Af-
ter three generations of marrying back into Israelite stock the offspring have
again sufficient spirit-bearing capacity to again be acceptable to YEHOVAH
God. The NASB version of the Bible puts it this way, “The sons of the third
generation who are born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD”. With
Moabites and Ammonites the banned period is ten generations. With
Caananites the offspring are barred for “all generations” from being an
acceptable gene pool to take wives from. Some make the claim that “ten”
in “ten generations” is a Hebraism meaning “for all time” -- but if so, why would
“all generations” be used in regard to the Caananites?

7. In the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, there are passages that appear to cut
across what has been said so far. Notice Ezra 9:1-2.

COMMENT: The “doing according to their abominations” may not be about
idolatry as practiced by all these peoples. It may be about such things as eat-
ing unclean food, as the word (Strong’s Concordance #8441 towebah) is
used in the sense of the not keeping of YEHOVAH’s commandments as being
an abomination. The point here is that those Israelite men who had taken for-
eign wives were not destroyed because there is no record of idolatry. Di-
vorce was commanded, as the mixed marriages were contrary to the
Law of YEHOVAH God. The children were not to be considered to be Israel-
ites, and had to be divorced with their mothers.

Nehemiah says that the wives were taken from the Ammonites and Moabites
only. These were of Semitic stock. What was demanded was the divorce of all
the foreign wives and their children. The three generations factor had not
been fulfilled because Judah had not been back in Palestine long enough at
that time for that to have come to pass.

8. What are we told in verse 13 of Ezra 9?

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