Why did Ezra ask the Jews to divorce their foreign wives if the bible says God hates divorce?

Answer 1

Exodus:34:12-16:

12: Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee

13: But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

14: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

15: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

16: And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.

Their influence,as idolaters, was such to turn the hearts of their husbands from the Lord just as King Solomon's heart was turned to idolatry by his foreign idolatrous wives.They had broken God's covenant just by marrying an idol worshiper.

1Kgs:11:4: For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Jezebel is the perfect example of this behavior .

1Kgs:16:31: And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

Ahab's sins started with taking a foreign idol worshiping wife who introduced him to all the evils of Baal worship.

This is a pattern that began as early as before the flood,when the sons of Seth, who were worshipers of the true God, started marrying the daughters of Cain,who like Cain threw off all worship of the true God.

Gen:6:2: That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

The next thing The Bible records the whole earth was evil. No longer was the earth separated into two groups of people--one who worshiped God, and the other who worshiped idols. The whole earth except one family,that being Noah's family,no longer worshiped God, but idols.

Gen:6:5: And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

They had broken the covenant that Israel had made with God when they married these profane women,especially the priests who could not minister before God with these foreign profane wives who made the priests ceremonially unclean.

Lev:21:7: They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God.

Answer 2

Divorce is permitted where necessary (Deuteronomy ch.24), whereas marrying non-Jewish wives is never permitted for Jews. The reason is given in the Community Answer.