Ezr 10:10 | CPDV | STEP | And Ezra, the priest, rose up, and he said to them: “You have transgressed, and you have taken foreign wives, so that you added to the offenses of Israel.

Ezra 10:10

10 And Ezra, the priest, rose up, and he said to them: “You have transgressed, and you have taken foreign wives, so that you added to the offenses of Israel. ^{▼▼10:10Taking foreign wives was offensive, not because of their ancestry, but because of the absence among them of the Jewish faith. Even in ancient times, the Law permitted persons of non-Hebrew ancestry to join with the Israelites, to accept the Jewish faith, and to be treated as Jews under the Law. So the wives were foreign in the sense that they were non-Jews, not because they were non-Hebrews. For an example of a non-Hebrew wife acceptable to the Jews, see the book of Ruth.(Conte)}