And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, You have transgressed, and have taken foreign wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.
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Bede
AD 735
And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, 'You have transgressed and married foreign wives, to add to the sin of Israel. And now make a confession to the Lord the God of your fathers', and so on until it says: So the descendants of the exiles did as was proposed. And Ezra the priest and the men who were the heads of the families departed to the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names. This passage answers the one which is stated above: And Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went away to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib, and entered there. He ate no bread and drank no water, for he continued to mourn. Here is it worth noting the devotion of the pontifex who while mourning, fasting, and praying for the people's transgression remained for three days in the temple courts and did not want to enter his own house before he saw that the people agreed to repent with a whole heart and turn to the Lord. The remaining leaders are seen to have shared this devotio...
Assuredly also, when (the apostle) rules that marriage should be “only in the Lord,” (1 Cor. 7:39) that no Christian should intermarry with a heathen, he maintains a law of the Creator, who everywhere prohibits marriage with strangers.
