I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezra 9-10.

    As soon as Ezra had gotten settled in, some of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem came to him with a concern. A casual reading would make it seem like they were unhappy with returned exiles intermarrying with the local people. This is true but incomplete. What they were concerned with was returned exiles intermarrying with the local people and adopting the idolatrous practices of those people. They even explained why they had come to Ezra about it: many of the leaders of the returned exiles were taking part in these practices. The focus of this passage is on intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews, but it was not about marrying outside of the ethnic group. Rather it was about marrying outside the religious group. It is clear that it was more than just about marrying women who were locals, because otherwise why would it require a case by case judgement of the marriages? To me, it seems obvious that each of the men married to a local woman was allowed to make the case that she had converted (or was already a follower of) to the Jewish practices. This passage makes it clear that if you marry someone of another faith, you will, sooner or later, begin to follow their idolatrous practices.