²⁴And their children spoke half in the speech of Azotus, and could not speak the Jews’ language, but they spoke according to the language of this and that people.

²⁵And I chid them, and laid my curse upon them. And I beat some of them, and shaved off their hair, and made them swear by God that they would not give their daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for their sons, nor for themselves, saying:

²⁶Did not Solomon king of Israel sin in this kind of thing: and surely among many nations, there was not a king like him, and he was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: and yet women of other countries brought even him to sin.

²⁷And shall we also be disobedient and do all this great evil to transgress against our God, and marry strange women:

²⁸And one of the sons of Joiada the son of Eliasib the high priest, was son in law to Sanaballat the Horonite, and I drove him from me.

²⁹Remember them, O Lord my God, that defile the priesthood, and the law of priests and Levites.

³⁰So I separated from them all strangers, and I appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites, every man in his ministry:

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