Board index ‹ Marriage

[Kylo Ren]

Okay so I am feeling like there’s a contradiction and I need some help. In multiple times throughout the OT, I believe God tells the Israelites to bring the single/widowed women from foreign lands after a war. But in the book of Ezra, Ezra forces the men who intermarried to leave their wife and children because of God’s decrees and because the women of foreign lands have false gods and wicked practices. Why is it okay for the Israelites to marry them after war but not in this situation?

[jimwalton]

When God allowed the Israelites to bring home a woman from war, these women became part of the covenant community as wives. In Ezra, the foreign women were NOT becoming part of the covenant community, but instead were continuing in their idolatry and bringing spiritual compromise to their families Ezra 10.2-3). In the case of Ezra's time, these men had married foreign women in rebellion against God.

These events were close to 1000 years apart, and so they are completely different situations.