Ezra chapter 10 describes the powerful response of the Jewish community following Ezra’s heartfelt prayer of confession, as the people gather together in a spirit of repentance, recognizing the seriousness of their intermarriage with pagan nations and their need to make things right before God. This chapter highlights the collective conviction that swept through the assembly, demonstrating a genuine desire among the people to turn away from their sin and restore their covenant relationship with God.
The chapter continues by detailing the practical steps taken to address the issue, including a public assembly where the people commit to separating themselves from their foreign wives and children in accordance with the Law of Moses. This section emphasizes the seriousness with which the community approached the matter, as leaders were appointed to oversee the process, ensuring that each case was handled carefully and systematically over an extended period of time, reflecting the community’s commitment to obedience despite the personal and social difficulties involved.
The chapter concludes with a detailed list of the individuals, including priests, Levites, and other Israelites, who had married foreign wives and subsequently separated from them in obedience to God’s command. This closing record underscores the seriousness of the community’s commitment to spiritual purity and faithfulness, serving as a powerful reminder of the importance of repentance and obedience in maintaining a right relationship with God, even when it requires significant personal sacrifice.
Chapter 10 (BBE)
1 Now while Ezra was making his prayer and his statement of wrongdoing, weeping and falling down before the house of God, a very great number of men and women and children out of Israel came together round him: for the people were weeping bitterly.
2 And Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answering, said to Ezra, We have done evil against our God, and have taken as our wives strange women of the peoples of the land: but still there is hope for Israel in this question.
3 Let us now make an agreement with our God to put away all the wives and all their children, if it seems right to my lord and to those who go in fear of the words of our God; and let it be done in keeping with the law.
4 Up, now! for this is your business, and we are with you; take heart and do it.
5 Then Ezra got up, and made the chiefs of the priests and the Levites and all Israel take an oath that they would do this. So they took an oath.
6 Then Ezra got up from before the house of God and went into the room of Jehohanan, the son of Eliashib; but when he came there, he took no food or drink, for he was sorrowing for the sin of those who had come back.
7 And they made a public statement through all Judah and Jerusalem, to all those who had come back, that they were to come together to Jerusalem;
8 And that if anyone did not come before three days were past, as ordered by the rulers and the responsible men, all his goods would be put under the curse, and he himself would be cut off from the meeting of the people who had come back.
9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin came together to Jerusalem before three days were past; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people were seated in the wide square in front of the house of God, shaking with fear because of this business and because of the great rain.
10 And Ezra the priest got to his feet and said to them, You have done wrong and taken strange women for your wives, so increasing the sin of Israel.
11 So now, give praise to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and make yourselves separate from the peoples of the land and from the strange women.
12 Then all the people, answering, said with a loud voice, As you have said, so it is right for us to do.
13 But the number of people is great, and it is a time of much rain; it is not possible for us to go on waiting outside, and this is not a thing which may be done in one day or even two: for our sin in this business is great.
14 So now let our rulers be representatives for all the people, and let all those in our towns who are married to strange women come at fixed times, and with them the responsible men and the judges of every town, till the burning wrath of our God is turned away from us, and this has been done.
15 Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahzeiah, the son of Tikvah, were against this, Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them.
16 So those who had come back did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of families, by their fathers’ families, all of them by their names, were marked out; and on the first day of the tenth month they took their places to go into the question with care.
17 And they got to the end of all the men who were married to strange women by the first day of the first month.
18 And among the sons of the priests who were married to strange women were these: of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak and his brothers, Maaseiah and Eliezer and Jarib and Gedaliah.
19 And they gave their word that they would put away their wives; and for their sin, they gave an offering of a male sheep of the flock.
43 Of the sons of Nebo, Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Iddo, and Joel, Benaiah.
44 All these had taken strange wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had offspring.
Important Verses
Verse 1: The people gather together in a spirit of repentance, weeping and acknowledging their sin before God.
Verse 3: The community’s commitment to make a covenant with God to separate from their foreign wives and children.
Verse 8: The seriousness of the situation, as those who did not comply with the assembly’s decision faced significant consequences.
Verse 12: The people’s collective agreement to follow through with the required actions to address their unfaithfulness.
Verse 44: The detailed list of individuals, including leaders, who had married foreign wives and subsequently separated from them in obedience to God’s command.
