Topic reference
What does the Bible say about interracial marriage?
Does the word appear in the Bible?
The word "interracial marriage" does not appear in the Bible.
Modern racial terminology — 'race,' 'interracial,' or anything corresponding to color-based categorization — does not appear in the Bible. The Bible's marriage texts address tribal, religious, and national distinctions. Discussions of 'interracial marriage' as a modern category therefore involve interpretive bridging between ancient and modern terms.
Every relevant passage
Numbers 12:1-9
Then Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married, for he had taken a Cushite wife. 'Does the LORD speak only through Moses?' they said. 'Does He not also speak through us?' And the LORD heard this. (Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.) Suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, 'You three, come out to the Tent of Meeting.' So the three of them went out, and the LORD descended in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them had come forward, He said, 'Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision; I will speak to him in a dream. But this is not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you unafraid to speak against My servant Moses?' So the anger of the LORD burned against them, and He departed.
And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it. (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore were ye not afraid to speak to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed.
Numbers 12 records Miriam and Aaron — Moses's siblings — speaking against Moses regarding his marriage to a Cushite woman (Cush was the region south of Egypt, modern-day Sudan/Ethiopia). The narrative depicts the LORD's anger directed at Miriam and Aaron, not at Moses. In the verses immediately following (12:10–15), Miriam is struck with a skin condition (rendered 'leprous' in some translations) for seven days. The text records the criticism and the divine response without commentary; readers should note that the Bible does not use modern racial categories, and 'Cushite' is a geographic-tribal designation.
Deuteronomy 7:1-4
When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations — the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you — and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you and swiftly destroy you.
The prohibition addresses the seven specific Canaanite nations the Israelites are about to encounter on entry to the land. The stated reason in the text is religious — 'they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods' — not racial or tribal in any modern sense. Verses 7:5–6 immediately follow with instructions to destroy religious objects and altars.
Ezra 9:1-2, 10:10-11
After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, 'The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples, whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. Indeed, the Israelite men have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and they have mixed the holy seed with the peoples of the land.' […] Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, 'You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to the guilt of Israel. Now, therefore, make a confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do His will. Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from the foreign wives.'
Ezra 9–10 records a post-exile incident in which Ezra the priest, learning that returning exiles had married women from surrounding peoples, instructs the men to send away those wives. The stated rationale matches Deuteronomy 7's framing — religious separation. Note: Nehemiah 13:23–27, addressing the same period, gives a similar account. The texts are highly contested in scholarly interpretation; we present what they say without further evaluation.
Ruth 1:16-17, 4:13-17
But Ruth replied: 'Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.' […] So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And when he had relations with her, the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. […] And they named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse, the father of David.
The book of Ruth records a Moabite woman, Ruth, marrying an Israelite, Boaz. The text is uniformly positive about the marriage. The genealogy at the end of the book (Ruth 4:18–22) traces Ruth's line to King David. Matthew 1:5 names her in the genealogy of Jesus. Moab was specifically named in Deuteronomy 23:3 as a people excluded from the assembly of the LORD, which makes the positive depiction of Ruth notable in the wider biblical narrative.
1 Kings 11:1-4
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh — women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and the Hittites. They were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, 'You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.' Yet Solomon clung to these women in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines — and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of his father David had been.
1 Kings 11 records Solomon's foreign wives. The text quotes the Deuteronomic prohibition and frames the issue explicitly in religious terms — the wives 'turned his heart after other gods.' The narrative does not address race or ethnicity as such.
2 Corinthians 6:14
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what harmony between Christ and Belial?
Paul's letter to the Corinthian church addresses the believer–unbeliever pairing in religious terms. Verse 14 is sometimes cited in modern interracial-marriage discussions; the passage explicitly addresses spiritual difference, not ethnic difference. The verses that follow (6:15–16) continue the contrast in religious terms.
Original language
Original language
The Bible does not use modern racial categories. Hebrew and Greek terms for outsider groups in marriage texts are tribal-religious — Canaanite, Cushite, Moabite, Egyptian, etc. — not racial. The Hebrew word for 'foreign' in marriage contexts is נָכְרִי (nokri, 'foreign, foreigner') or its feminine נָכְרִיָּה (nokriyyah). The marriage prohibitions in the Pentateuch are addressed by the texts to specific named groups (Deuteronomy 7:1) with stated religious rationales.
What the text does not say
Passages commonly cited in this discussion that, in full context, are about something else.
- Genesis 9:20-27 (the curse of Ham/Canaan)
Genesis 9:20–27 records Noah cursing Canaan after his son Ham sees Noah naked. The text addresses Canaan, one of Ham's sons, by name. The passage does not mention skin color and does not address marriage. It was historically misused in arguments for race-based slavery and segregation; the text itself does not contain such a framing.
- Numbers 12 (Moses's Cushite wife)
Numbers 12 records the LORD's anger at Miriam and Aaron for criticizing Moses's marriage. The passage describes the LORD's response to the criticism, not an evaluation of the marriage itself. Some scholars debate whether the criticism was about ethnicity or about another factor (such as Moses's authority); the text itself records the criticism and the divine response.
- Deuteronomy 7:1-4
The prohibition on intermarriage in Deuteronomy 7 names seven specific Canaanite nations and gives an explicit religious rationale ('they will turn your sons away from following Me'). The text addresses tribal-religious identity, not race in any modern sense.
- 2 Corinthians 6:14 ('unequally yoked')
The 'unequally yoked' passage explicitly addresses the believer–unbeliever pairing in religious terms. The text does not address race.
What we are showing you
This page lists Bible passages cited in modern discussions of interracial marriage. Each is presented with a factual context note. We do not draw a conclusion about whether the texts apply to modern interracial marriage, and we do not advocate any position.
Three things to know about the texts
First, the Bible does not use modern racial categories. The marriage texts address tribal and religious identity — Canaanite, Cushite, Moabite, Egyptian, Hittite — not race. Translating these texts to modern racial discussions involves interpretive bridging that the texts themselves do not perform.
Second, the marriage prohibitions in the Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 7:1–4 and parallel passages) name specific peoples and give explicit religious rationales: “they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods.” The texts do not name skin color, ancestry, or anything corresponding to race.
Third, the same biblical canon contains both the prohibition narratives (Numbers 12, Ezra 9–10, 1 Kings 11) and counter-examples (Ruth 4, Numbers 12 itself). The book of Ruth records a Moabite woman becoming the great-grandmother of King David and is named in Matthew 1:5 in Jesus’s genealogy. The texts do not present a single, uniform position.
The historical use of biblical passages in arguments for race-based slavery and segregation — particularly the misuse of Genesis 9:20–27 — has been studied extensively. The text of Genesis 9 itself does not address skin color or marriage.