And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, [saying], Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.
Ver. 25. And cursed them] i.e. I denounced God's heavy curse and vengeance upon them (according to that themselves had wished and entered into, Neh 10:30), in case they repented not. This is nothing, then, in favour of our cursing men who are cursed men, &c.
And smote certain of them] So far was his heart enraged with a holy hatred of their sin, that he could not forbear them. So when Charles V had heard that Farnesius (General of the pope's forces) had ravished certain ladies, he brake out into this speech (and was never in all his life observed to be more angry at anything), Si adesset impurus ille Farnesius, manu mea confoderem: Oh, if I had here that filthy fellow, I would slay him with mine own hand.
And made them swear by God] So they had done before, Nehemiah 10:29,30. But now, alas, they were all gone aside, they were altogether become filthy, they stank above ground, Psalms 14:3. He takes therefore another oath of them, &c.