Oddity in Deuteronomy and Ezra

[Sherlene]

Deuteronomy 7:1-5 states that the Israelites were NOT to engage in marriage with the Canaanite pagans.  Deuteronomy 21: 10-14 apparently negates that prohibition, permitting intermarriage to a ‘virgin that you have a desire unto’; however Ezra does not seem to be aware of the amended law in Deuteronomy 21, because in Ezra 9 &10, he laments (while rebuilding the ruins of Jerusalem), that the Israelites, even the priests, have married pagan wives and had children to them.  In a desperate attempt to put away the evil from within the camp, these wives (war victims from battle conquests) and their children were sent away. Ezra was very distressed because the Israelite men who made marriages with pagan women haad committed a serious violation of the law in Deuteronomy 7).  One has to ask why Ezra didn’t continue reading the ancient book of Deuteronomy where he would have been expected to see the amended law in Deuteronomy 21, which permitted the marriage of pagan women after taking them as conquests in battle.  Had the passage been in existence, or considered to be a valid portion of Scripture, then Ezra would have been ‘off the hook’ and the Israelites could then have welcomed their pagan wives back!  One has to question, why this did not occur.

What do you think?