myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Ezra 9:1–2; 1 Esdras 8:69–70

The peoples of the lands and "the holy seed"

Ezra's list of peoples combines Deuteronomy 7:1 and 23:3–8. The library's Greek has "Moserites" for Egyptians; the KJV text of 1 Esdras 8:69 has Edomites and lacks Ammonites and Amorites. "The holy seed" (9:2) echoes Isaiah 6:13.

Read Ezra 9:1–2; 1 Esdras 8:69–70 in every edition

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew / Aramaic
  1. Original Ezra–NehemiahComposed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah
Greek
  1. Septuagint, Esdras B (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd–1st century BCTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra
Latin
    English
    1. 1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha (1611)1611Translated from printed Greek of 1 Esdras
    2. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Composed c. 5th–4th century BC (debated)

      Original Ezra–Nehemiah

      – No copy survives

      No original survives.

    2. Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC

      Septuagint, Esdras B (library text: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew–Aramaic text of Ezra

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      du Chananéen, de l'Hettéen, du Phérézéen, du Jébuséen, de l'Ammonite, du Moabite, du Mosérite, de l'Amorrhéen… la semence sainte s'est détournée

      One Greek text via Giguet's French; not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Ezra–Nehemiah

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      הָעַמֹּנִי הַמֹּאָבִי הַמִּצְרִי וְהָאֱמֹרִי… וְהִתְעָרְבוּ זֶרַע הַקֹּדֶשׁ

      the Ammonite, the Moabite, the Egyptian and the Amorite… and the holy seed mingled

      Some scholars emend "Amorite" to "Edomite" (one letter's difference in Hebrew script), matching Deuteronomy 23 and 1 Esdras.

    4. 1611

      1 Esdras in the King James Apocrypha (1611)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Greek of 1 Esdras

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      of the Canaanites, Hittites, Pheresites, Jebusites, and the Moabites, Egyptians, and Edomites

      1 Esdras 8:69.

    5. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites… so that the holy seed have mingled themselves

    What changed, and why

    The list is a reading of the Torah applied to new circumstances, not a census of living nations. The variants show that ancient readers also adjusted it. "Holy seed" applies to the community the holiness the Torah gives priests and the land; its implications for ethnicity are debated, and the site avoids modern racial terms.

    What the evidence shows

    • Strongly supportedEzra 9:1 combines the lists of Deuteronomy 7:1 and 23:3–8.
    • Independently documented1 Esdras 8:69 (KJV) reads Edomites.

    Sources

    • H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16, 1985)
    • J. Blenkinsopp, Ezra–Nehemiah (Old Testament Library, 1988)

    Related lessons

    • Mixed Marriages and Ezra's Prayer →Leaders report that the people, priests and Levites "have not separated themselves from the people of the lands," listed with the old names of Canaan's nations and Israel's neighbors, and have married their daughters, "so that the holy seed have mingled themselves." Ezra tears his clothes, pulls out his hair and beard, and sits appalled until the evening offering. Then he kneels and prays a confession for the whole people.