Napoleon's Sanhedrin and the Halakhah 33

mothers were Ammonite and Moabite (II Chronicles 24:26). While the Israelites were in the desert, they consorted with Moabite women and were led astray after their gods(Num. 25:1ff). In that same section we have a report of an Israelite who brought a Midianite woman into camp and was slain by a zealot. In both these instances the danger of other religions was decried. However, Ruth, a Moabite woman, demonstrated an opposing point of view, as she became the antecedent of David (Ruth 4:18).

The most thorough Biblical injunctions were directed against mixed marriage with the seven Canaanite nations; so the Hittites , Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites , Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (Deut. 7:1; also Exodus 34:11) were prohibited.“You shall not intermarry with them and not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons”(Deut. 7:3). A clear exception was made for a woman taken as prisoner of war(Deut . 21.11 ff). After a period of delay, her captor could marry her; and the legislation made no comments of a religious nature, nor did it mention conversion. The Bible contains few references to proselytes(Is. 14:1; Esther 10:27).

When the Israelites entered Canaan , they intermarried with the local inhabitants and served other gods(Judges 3:6). The most striking example of such a mixed marriage was that of Samson and Delilah (judges 14:1). She was a Philistine , and became responsible for his downfall. Later Solomon married many foreign women as part of royal alliances(1 Kings 11:1 ff), and they, too, led him astray in his old age. If we look at the subsequent record of the kings of Judah and Israel , we may be surprised at the paucity of mixed marriages. Among the nineteen kings of Israel who ruled for two hundred forty-one years, we find only Ahab , who was married to Jezebel (I Kings 16:31). Among the twenty kings of Judea who ruled for three hundred ninety-three years, we have only Jehoram (II Chronicles 21:6), and possibly Jehosaphat(II Chronicles 18:1), whose mother's name may have been omitted because she was not an Israelite. ”