Formatting problem with the previous post is fixerated, I hope.
So, Ezra discovers that the Jews have been intermarrying with other people of the area and he completely loses his marbles. He pulls out his hair and beard, and can't even manage to stand up for hours. Then he finally pulls it together, berates the people, and convinces them to expel their gentile wives and children, which they do without, apparently, a murmur of protest.
Indeed the Torah, and notably Deuteronomy, which was actually written late in the First Temple period, does forbid intermarriage. But there is some tension about this in the Tanakh. The Book of Ruth was written somewhat later than this but is set in the mythical time of the Book of Judges, so it's presumably based on an ancient tale. It's all about a Moabite woman marrying a prominent Israeli man, and nobody has the slightest problem with it, in fact it's presented as a required leverite marriage. To be sure, Ruth had avowed loyalty to Yahweh, but there was no formal conversion process. In Joshua, the Canaanite brothel keeper Rahab and her family become incorporated into the Israelite people. There is no specific mention that she ended up marrying an Israelite, and indeed she probably couldn't because of her former profession, but presumably her children did. Scholars believe this tale is there because in fact, some Canaanite people became incorporated into the Israelites. Indeed, given human nature, it would be surprising if this didn't happen.
We can only speculate why the author of Ezra/Nehemiah makes so much of this. One can surmise that given that Judah was no longer an independent kingdom, but a component of a much larger empire, the threat of assimilation loomed large. The priesthood, which Ezra represents, as throughout the Deuteronomistic history, is defending its privileges against the claims of other cults, and of course intermarriage wold be seen as perhaps the most dire threat. This attitude of course persisted in the diaspora and persists today, even among some secular Jews. I could talk about my own personal and family history with this issue, but that seems gratuitous. Perhaps some of our Jewish readers would like to comment about it.
9 After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. 2 They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”
3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.
5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God 6 and prayed:
“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.
8 “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place[a] in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. 9 Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.
10 “But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands 11 you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. 12 Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’
13 “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. 14 Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? 15 Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”
Footnotes
- Ezra 9:8 Or a foothold
1 comment:
Seems like any tribal group views the "other" as a threat. It's understandable, since tribes have perpetrated war on each other and killed each other through history. No tribe has suffered more than the Jews. And yet, on another level, this is all ridiculous. I've spent time in Montreal, where plenty of people seem to date/intermarry/etc., and the society there seems tolerant, with people of every conceivable ethnic mix.
Whether it's climate change, intolerance, pollution, preparation for the next (H5N1?) pandemic ... we could be living in a paradise, and most human potential is wasted. We simply don't seem to have the will as a species to get our act together.
It would be so easy to live and let live. But this human world takes the Jesuses and Lennons and Gandhis and rips 'em to shreds. One can see why George Carlin came to the conclusion that the sooner we were gone from this Earth, the better.
I hope we can buck the trend.
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