Nehemiah 13:23-29

5. The rebuke of mixed marriages 13:23-29

Nehemiah confronted this problem as Ezra had several years earlier (Ezra 9-10). The text records only Nehemiah’s words to the people, but since we know what kind of person he was, we can safely assume that he followed up his words with action. Evidently some of these Jews had divorced their Jewish wives to marry foreigners (Malachi 2:10-16). Plucking the beard (Nehemiah 13:25) was a form of punishment (cf. Isaiah 50:6), and it was a public disgrace (2 Samuel 10:4). The marriage of Joiada’s son to a foreigner (Nehemiah 13:28) was especially bad since he was the grandson of the high priest, and priests were to marry only Jewish virgins (Leviticus 21:14).

"Any person in the high-priestly lineage could become high priest. It was thus a dangerous situation." [Note: Fensham, p. 267.]

In the ancient East, marriages involving prominent families were often arranged to secure political advantage and to form alliances. Probably this was the case in the marriage of the high priest’s grandson and Sanballat’s daughter. Again, a similar prayer by Nehemiah marks off this significant reform (Nehemiah 13:29; cf. Nehemiah 13:14). [Note: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p. 681, contains a helpful chart of 13 problems Nehemiah faced and how he dealt successfully with each one.]

". . . Will Israel survive just to repeat the sins of the past? Intermarriage dragged Solomon and the entire nation into a vortex of doom that led to the exile. Will the postexilic generation go the same way?" [Note: Tremper Longman III and Raymond B. Dillard, An Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 212.]