Malachi 2:11

"Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel, and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of Jehovah which he loveth, and hath married the daughter of a foreign god."

"And hath married the daughter of a foreign god ..." This gives light upon which marriages were forbidden. A great mixed multitude went up out of Egypt, but they were circumcised, and adopted into Judaism by keeping the Passover, etc. (Exodus 12:48, and Numbers 9:14). Ruth was married to Boaz, but that took place after she had rejected the Moabite gods (Ruth 1:16); also, Rahab the harlot was likewise married to a prince of Israel, but after she was committed to the true God. Thus, it was clearly the paganism of the foreign wives that was the crux of the violation. Then too, there was the matter of divorce, also an evil fiercely condemned by Malachi. (See under Malachi 2:16.)

"`Daughter of' implied `bearing the character of' a deity whose whole ethos was diametrically opposed to the righteousness of Israel's God."[18]