Nehemiah 13:23-27 · Bible study
Nehemiah 13:23-27 Commentary: Mixed Marriages and Covenant Identity
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Nehemiah confronts mixed marriages that threatened Jewish language and covenant identity, citing Solomon as a warning.
Research Summary
- Meaning: Nehemiah confronts Jews who married foreign women, leading to language loss and covenant compromise.
- Key words: “women of Ashdod, Ammon, Moab” (v.23); “half in the speech of Ashdod” (v.24); “contended, cursed, smote, plucked off hair” (v.25); “foreign women caused even him to sin” (v.26).
- Main debate: Was Nehemiah's violence appropriate, and were Ashdodite marriages as serious as those with Ammon and Moab?
- Theological theme: Covenant holiness requires active measures to preserve the community's distinct identity as God's people.
- Best use: A sermon or lesson on the dangers of assimilation, the responsibility of parents, and the need for decisive action in guarding the faith.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
23In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
24Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of the other peoples, but could not speak the language of Judah.
25I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!
26Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel—yet foreign women drew him into sin.
27Must we now hear that you too are doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?”
WEB World English Bible 2000
23In those days I also saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab;
24and their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.
25I contended with them, cursed them, struck certain of them, plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves.
26Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin.
27Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?”
KJV King James Version 1769
23In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
24And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.
25And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.
26Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.
27Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives?
ASV American Standard Version 1901
23In those days also saw I the Jews that had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, andof Moab:
24and their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.
25And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves.
26Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, and he was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did foreign women cause to sin.
27Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
23Also, in those days, I have seen the Jews who have settled women of Ashdod, of Ammon, of Moab.
24And of their sons, half are speaking Ashdoditish--and are not knowing to speak Jewish--and according to the language of people and people.
25And I strive with them, and declare them vile, and smite certain of them, and pluck off their hair, and cause them to swear by God, `Ye do not give your daughters to their sons, nor do ye take of their daughters to your sons, and to yourselves.
26`By these did not Solomon king of Israel sin? and among the many nations there was no king like him, and beloved by his God he was, and God maketh him king over all Israel--even him did the strange women cause to sin.
27And to you do we hearken to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God, to settle strange women?'
Darby Darby Bible 1890
23In those days also I saw Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, [and] of Moab.
24And their children spoke half in the language of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.
25And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them and plucked off their hair, and adjured them by God [saying], Ye shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
26Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among the many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel; but even him did foreign wives cause to sin.
27And should we hearken to you to do all this great evil, to act unfaithfully to our God by marrying foreign wives?
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
23In those days also I saw Jews that married wives, women of Azotus, and of Ammon, and of Moab.
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:
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Nehemiah 13:23
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that Nehemiah saw these intermarriages as a direct threat to the covenant community. The loss of the Hebrew language among the children (v.24) was not merely a cultural issue, it signalled that the next generation would be cut off from the Scriptures and from the worship of God. Adam Clarke suggests the language confusion within families prevented mutual understanding and spiritual formation. Gill notes that Ashdodite marriages, while not explicitly banned in Deuteronomy like those with Ammon and Moab, were equally dangerous because they introduced foreign worship. The heart of the crisis, as Keil and Delitzsch observe, was that these marriages compromised Israel's calling as a people set apart for God. Nehemiah's dramatic response, cursing, beating, and shaving, underscores the gravity of the threat. Yet even as they condemn the sin, several commentators caution that Nehemiah's methods reflect his cultural context and should not be taken as a model for church discipline today.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Covenantal boundary view: Intermarriage with any foreign group was a sin because it led to idolatry and loss of covenant distinctiveness, regardless of whether the group was explicitly banned in Deuteronomy. This view points to the language loss as proof of assimilation.
- Specific historical threat view: The Ashdodites, Ammonites, and Moabites were specifically threatening because they were neighboring enemies who had opposed the rebuilding (Nehemiah 4:7). Marrying them was both a political and spiritual betrayal.
- Literal vs. figurative violence view: Some argue that Nehemiah's physical actions (beating, hair-pulling) were literal and culturally appropriate for his time; others read them as vivid rhetorical descriptions of his emotional intensity, not to be taken as literal commands.
What is clear: It is clear that Nehemiah saw these marriages as a grave threat to the community's covenant relationship with God, and he acted decisively to stop them.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| The severity of Nehemiah's actions | Christians agree that Nehemiah was right to see these marriages as a serious threat to the covenant community. | Some see his physical violence and cursing as normative for church discipline, while others view them as culturally conditioned expressions that should not be copied today. |
| The inclusion of Ashdodites | All traditions agree that Nehemiah's concern was about covenant loyalty, not just legal prohibition. | Catholics and Orthodox often emphasize the spiritual danger of idolatry, while many Protestants focus on the threat to the transmission of faith. Some argue that Ashdodite marriages were included because the language loss was the visible symptom. |
| Application to modern interfaith marriage | Christians agree that marriage between believers and unbelievers carries spiritual risk (2 Cor 6:14). | Some traditions teach that all marriages with non-Christians are forbidden; others distinguish between the Old Testament theocratic context and the New Testament where marriage with an unbeliever is permitted if the believer is already married (1 Cor 7:12-14). |
Historical & Cultural Context
The events of Nehemiah 13 take place after the dedication of the wall, during Nehemiah's second term as governor (Neh 13:6-7). He had returned to the Persian court and then come back to Jerusalem to find that the reforms he and Ezra had instituted had unraveled. Mixed marriages had been a problem already in Ezra's time (Ezra 9-10), and a solemn covenant had been made to end them. Now, years later, the practice had resurfaced.
The three groups Nehemiah names, Ashdodites (Philistines), Ammonites, and Moabites, represent Israel's historic enemies. The Law of Moses explicitly forbade Ammonites and Moabites from entering the assembly (Deuteronomy 23:3-6). Ashdod, a Philistine city, is mentioned in Nehemiah 4:7 as an opponent of the rebuilding. The Philistines had long oppressed Israel. But Nehemiah's concern goes beyond ethnic purity. What he observed firsthand was that the children of these unions could not speak Hebrew (v.24). They spoke “half in the speech of Ashdod” and were unable to speak “the Jews' language.” This was a crisis of transmission: without the ancestral language, the children could not read the Torah, participate in worship, or maintain their identity as God's people. The Cambridge Bible notes that Nehemiah likely discovered these families during a journey through the southern districts of Judea, near the Philistine border.
Nehemiah's violent reaction, he “contended with them, cursed them, struck certain of them, plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God” (v.25), reflects his urgency and grief. Such actions were not unprecedented in the ancient Near East, where public shaming and physical punishment were used to enforce social boundaries. But for Nehemiah, this was not mere anger; it was a prophetic act meant to shock the community back to covenant faithfulness.
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant textual variants for Nehemiah 13:23-27. The Hebrew text is stable across manuscript traditions. The main variation is in the English rendering of the rhetorical question in verse 27, where some translations read "Shall we then hearken unto you" (KJV, WEB) while others read "Must we now hear that you too are doing all this terrible evil" (BSB). The difference is interpretive, not textual.
Reception History
Early Jewish tradition, reflected in the Talmud, saw Nehemiah's actions as a legitimate exercise of his authority as a governor appointed by the Persian king. Christian interpreters across the centuries have been divided. John Calvin used this passage to argue that the church must discipline its members to maintain purity, while others, like the early Anabaptists, pointed to Nehemiah's zeal as a model for separation from the world. In more recent times, the passage has troubled many readers because of Nehemiah's violence. Some preachers emphasize the principle of guarding the community's identity, while others caution against applying the literal methods. The passage is often cited in discussions about ethnic identity versus covenant identity.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The problem of cultural drift. Language loss (v.24) reveals a deeper spiritual drift. When the next generation cannot speak the language of faith, the covenant is at risk. Nehemiah's discovery is an alarm bell for every community that assumes the faith will transmit automatically.
- The argument from precedent. Nehemiah cites Solomon (v.26) as a warning from history. If the wisest and most beloved king fell through foreign marriages, no one is immune. This is an argument from the greater to the lesser: if Solomon could not stand, how can we presume to be safe?
- The demand for decisive action. Nehemiah does not merely rebuke; he makes the offenders swear an oath of separation (v.25). The lesson is not about violence but about the seriousness of guarding the community's distinctiveness. Some crises call for hard boundaries.
Five-point outline
- Observation: Nehemiah sees the problem (v.23-24). The mixed marriages produce children who cannot speak Hebrew.
- Confrontation: Nehemiah rebukes, curses, beats, and shames the offenders (v.25). His actions are extreme, but they communicate the urgency of the situation.
- Oath: He makes them swear to stop the practice (v.25). The oath becomes a covenantal renewal.
- Scriptural argument: He appeals to Solomon (v.26) to show that even the greatest king fell because of foreign wives.
- Rhetorical question: “Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil?” (v.27). The question is meant to shame the people into repentance.
Illustration hooks
- The bilingual dinner table. In families where parents speak different languages, children often lose the minority language. A child who cannot speak their grandparents' tongue loses access to family stories and values. Nehemiah saw a similar loss in the spiritual family.
- The broken thermostat. A thermostat set too low will let the room get cold. Nehemiah turned the heat up high because he saw that the covenant temperature had dropped dangerously. Sometimes a strong response is needed to wake people up.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Was Nehemiah's violence justified? How should we handle sin in the church?
- Is this passage a command against all intermarriage today, or was it specific to Israel's situation?
- What does it mean to preserve “the faith once delivered”, does our language and culture matter that much?
Leading a Discussion
This passage confronts us with a hard question: how do we protect our identity as God's people without becoming exclusive or unloving? Nehemiah saw that the next generation was losing the language of faith. The covenant itself was at stake. As you discuss this text, resist the temptation to rush to modern parallels. First, listen to what Nehemiah was facing in his own context.
Discussion questions
- Read verses 23-24. What exactly did Nehemiah see that alarmed him? Why was the language problem so serious?
- In verse 25, Nehemiah uses strong actions, cursing, beating, shaving. How do you react to that? What does it tell you about his priorities?
- Verse 26 uses Solomon as an example. Why does Nehemiah mention Solomon in particular? What point is he making about the danger of these marriages?
- The rhetorical question in verse 27 (“Shall we then listen to you…”) is powerful. What is Nehemiah really asking? Is he expecting an answer?
- What does this passage teach about the connection between our choices and the faith of the next generation?
- How does this passage challenge our own tendency to compromise with the surrounding culture?
- In what ways might Christians today need to make hard choices to preserve the faith for their children and grandchildren?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| I Samuel 5:1 | Now the Philistines had taken God’s ark, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. |
| Ezra 9:1 | Now when these things were done, the princes came near to me, saying, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations, even those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. |
| Ezra 9:2 | For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy offspring have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands. Yes, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass.” |
| Ezra 9:11 | which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land to which you go to possess is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their filthiness. |
| Ezra 9:12 | Now therefore don’t give your daughters to their sons. Don’t take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ |
| Ezra 10:10 | Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have trespassed, and have married foreign women, increasing the guilt of Israel. |
| Ezra 10:44 | All these had taken foreign wives. Some of them had wives by whom they had children. |
| Nehemiah 4:7 | But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabians, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem went forward, and that the breaches began to be filled, they were very angry; |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
9 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke explains that intermarriage led to children in the same home speaking different languages, each taught by their mother. He notes these children could not understand one another. For the sin of mixed marriages, he describes public rebuke, whipping, shaving as humiliation, and forcing an oath against such unions, using Solomon's downfall as a warning.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes notes that the problem Nehemiah confronted was not simply familiarity with a foreign tongue but a corrupted hybrid. The children of mixed marriages spoke a broken dialect that was half Philistine and half Hebrew, a linguistic compromise that reflected their divided loyalties.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The Cambridge Bible notes that Nehemiah's charge targets a specific group of Jews, not the entire nation, as the Hebrew definite article shows. The commentary also highlights that the children's mixed language from Ashdod proved the cultural erosion Nehemiah was fighting, and his violent actions—cursing, striking, and pulling hair—were personal and frantic, not a formal judicial sentence.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva notes highlight that Nehemiah's harsh reaction to mixed marriages is justified by pointing to Solomon as a warning example. Even Solomon, the greatest king and beloved of God, was led into sin by foreign wives. If such a man could fall, no one can safely disregard this command.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill highlights the example of Solomon: if even the wisest king, beloved by God, was led into idolatry by foreign wives, then no one is safe from such danger. He presses this as a sobering warning that makes Nehemiah's drastic response understandable rather than excessive.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB emphasizes that the children's inability to speak the Jews' language revealed a deeper corruption: they had absorbed foreign principles and habits from their mothers. The punishment included excommunication and a violent hair-plucking that combined disgrace with real pain, like plucking a bird alive.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch observes that the children's loss of Hebrew points to these families living on the borders near foreign nations, not within the Jewish community. Nehemiah, unlike Ezra, did not dissolve existing marriages but required an oath to stop, driving home the warning with Solomon's failure.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry notes that Nehemiah's reform here was not about enriching himself but about restoring the people as a distinct nation set apart for God. He observes that this same sin had been addressed in Ezra's time, showing how quickly the heart returns to corruption when vigilance is relaxed.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley interprets the three punishments as fitting consequences for violating God's plain law and the people's own solemn covenants. He sees excommunication, judicial beatings, and the shaving of hair as a deliberate progression of disgrace, with baldness marking a loss of liberty and a sign of slavery and sorrow.