Nehemiah 13:24
And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people. And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.
The verse belongs to the time after Judah had publicly pledged to obey the law, when Nehemiah had returned to Persia and evils that threatened to pervert the nation were creeping into Jerusalem. Jews had married wives from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab, and by this intermarriage with idolaters friendship was created with Israel's bitter enemies. Their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod and could not speak in the Jews' language, but spoke according to the language of each of those peoples. This intermarriage and association with idolaters was an unlawful alliance that brought danger and great confusion to Israel and threatened the nation with ruin.
The danger was greater because some who entered these marriages were men in high position, rulers to whom the people had a right to look for counsel and a safe example. The children's speech showed that heathen influence had entered Israelite homes, where children raised by heathen mothers in their nations' customs grew into dangerous idolaters because they remained connected to God's people. Nehemiah reasoned earnestly with the wrongdoers, pointing to Solomon, to whom God had given great wisdom with no king like him among all the nations, yet whom idolatrous women turned away from God so that his example corrupted Israel, and challenging them over giving their daughters to foreign sons and taking foreign daughters for their sons and for themselves. As he set before them God's commands and threatenings and the fearful judgments visited on Israel in the past for this very sin, their consciences were aroused and a work of reformation began that turned away God's threatened anger and brought His approval and blessing.