Ezra 10:16

16 The exiles did what had been proposed. Ezra the priest selected men^[a] who were family leaders, all [identified] by name, to represent^[b] their ancestral houses. They convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter,

Ezra 10:16 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 10:16

And the children of the captivity did so
Put away their strange wives:

and Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house
of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated;
from all their other business, and gave themselves up to attend to this wholly:

and sat down in the first day of the tenth month;
the month Tebeth, which answers to part of December and January; this was ten days after the assembly of all the people met and broke up: these took their places in the great court, and there sat

to examine the matter;
the accounts brought in from the several cities by the magistrates thereof, and recorded them.

Ezra 10:16 In-Context

14 Let our leaders represent the entire assembly. Then let all those in our towns who have married foreign women come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of each town, in order to avert the fierce anger of our God concerning this matter."

15 Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah opposed this, with Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them.

16 The exiles did what had been proposed. Ezra the priest selected men who were family leaders, all [identified] by name, to represent their ancestral houses. They convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter,

17 and by the first day of the first month they had dealt with all the men who had married foreign women.

18 [The following] were found to have married foreign women from the descendants of the priests: from the descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.

Footnotes

• [a]. 1 Esdras 9:16, Syr; MT, Vg read priest and men were selected
• [b]. Lit name, for