Ezra 7:26

26 Anyone who does not keep the law of your God and the law of the king, let a fair judgment be executed against him, whether death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.

Ezra 7:26 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 7:26

And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of
the king
Either the judge who delays judgment, or does not execute it according to the law of God, and of the king; or the people, that do not obey the law of God in matters of religion, and the law of the king in civil things, Judea being now a province of the Persian empire; though some think the law of the king only refers to this law or decree of the king, which gave the Jews power to execute their own laws:

let judgment be executed speedily upon him;
immediately, without delay, according to the nature of his crime:

whether it be unto death;
if guilty of a capital crime, deserving death, let him be put to death:

or to banishment;
from his native country to a foreign distant land;

or to rooting out
F25, as the word signifies; an utter extirpation of him and his family, a destroying him root and branch; or, as Jarchi expresses it, a rooting him out of the world, his seed and family:

or to confiscation of goods;
to payment of mulcts and fines:

or to imprisonment;
for such a term of time; all according to the breach of what law he may be guilty of; thus far the king's decree.


FOOTNOTES:

F25 (wvrvl) "ad eradicationem ejus", Pagninus, Montanus; "ad eradicationem", Tigurine version, Vatablus, De Dieu, Michaelis.

Ezra 7:26 In-Context

24 Be advised that tribute, duty, and land tax must not be imposed on any priests, Levites, singers, doorkeepers, temple servants, or [other] servants of this house of God.
25 And you, Ezra, according to God's wisdom that you possess, appoint magistrates and judges to judge all the people in the region west of the Euphrates who know the laws of your God and to teach anyone who does not know [them].
26 Anyone who does not keep the law of your God and the law of the king, let a fair judgment be executed against him, whether death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.
27 Praise the Lord God of our fathers, who has put it into the king's mind to glorify the house of the Lord in Jerusalem,
28 and who has shown favor to me before the king, his counselors, and all his powerful officers. So I took courage because I was strengthened by the Lord my God, and I gathered Israelite leaders to return with me.
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