Bible Strands
Ezra 9:1
After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — After the completion of the restoration work, the officials approach Ezra to report that the Israelites, priests, and Levites have failed to maintain separation from surrounding nations. They deliver this report directly to him as a formal accusation of collective breach.
The words — The Hebrew term נִבְדּֽלּוּ (niv.de.Lu) literally means "they have separated themselves," while כַּלּ֣וֹת (kha.Lot) denotes "just as finished." These terms anchor the leaders' report in a completed action and a failed boundary.
The thread — The demand for separation echoes Leviticus 18:24, which warns against defilement by the practices of the nations being driven out. Nehemiah 9:2 records a later corporate confession of this boundary, while Ezra 10:10 documents Ezra's confrontation regarding the resulting unfaithfulness.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to recognize that leadership failure accelerates communal compromise and that covenant identity depends on maintaining distinct boundaries. It demands an immediate accounting of how mixed alliances violate established separation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 18:24 Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
- Nehemiah 9:2 Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
- Ezra 10:10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to the guilt of Israel.
- Exodus 33:16 For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
- Deuteronomy 12:30 be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”
- Romans 2:17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God;
- Genesis 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
- Genesis 15:19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
- Exodus 13:5 And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you shall keep this service in this month.
- Exodus 23:23 For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.