"... Many scholars have assumed that, when Shecaniah said that intermarriage should be counteracted “in accordance with the Torah,” he was saying that intermarriage was prohibited by the Torah of Moses. There is a strong pentateuchal basis for such a prohibition. The Pentateuchal source that is repeatedly cited is Deuteronomy 7:3 “do not make marriages with them; do not give your daughter to his son; and do not take his daughter for your son.” However, it must be noted that this prohibition is specifically about the local nations and does not reflect a general prohibition against intermarriage. Furthermore, despite very insightful and creative attempts to explain the relationship between earlier pentateuchal traditions and Ezra’s prohibition, Deuteronomy contains no explicit commandment to divorce foreign women and to expel their children. Indeed, there is no general prohibition against intermarriage anywhere in the Pentateuch. How are we to explain Shecaniah’s claim that this law is Torah? Is it new law? Or, is it part of the old Mosaic Torah? Most scholars agree that we should understand this passage from Ezra as an early example of interpretation of earlier biblical traditions—namely, that Ezra interprets texts like Deuteronomy 7, and thereby claims that the resulting law reflects the correct reading of what was intended by Moses in the Torah. (For texts which are contemporaneous with Ezra 10 and reflect a similar position, namely that intermarriage is tantamount to treachery, see Ezra 10:2; 10:5; 10:10; Nehemiah 1:8; 13:25–27) Indeed the same story could be told about Ezra’s priestly courses—namely, that this organization of the priests and levites is said to be what Moses intended, or what David and Solomon envisioned ..."