Ezra 10:15

15 Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahaziah, the son of Tikvah, were placed over this matter; and Meshullam and Shabbethai, the Levites, helped them.

Ezra 10:15 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 10:15

Only Jonathan the son of Asahel, and Jahaziah the son
of Tikvah, were employed about the matter
To see that this affair was conducted in the manner proposed; that the magistrates of every city brought the persons that had been delinquents, in their turns, of which they gave them notice, and took the account of them as they came:

and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them;
assisted them in this work; the other two perhaps were priests, and both these Levites; and these four were the only persons appointed over this matter, as the phrase in the preceding clause may signify; though Jarchi interprets it to a quite contrary sense, that they were the only persons that opposed and objected to it; and so Dr. Lightfoot ^F18 understands it, and renders it, "stood against this matter"; in which they were seconded by the two Levites, and the sense is very probable.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F18 Works, vol. 1. p. 144.

Ezra 10:15 In-Context

13 But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and there is no strength to stand in the street; neither is this a work of one day or two; for we are many that have transgressed in this thing.

14 Let our rulers of all the congregation now stand, and let all those who have taken strange women in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of each city and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter is turned from us.

15 Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahaziah, the son of Tikvah, were placed over this matter; and Meshullam and Shabbethai, the Levites, helped them.

16 And the sons of the captivity did so. And Ezra, the priest, and the men who were the heads of the fathers in the house of their fathers were separated, all of them by their names, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to inquire into the matter.

17 And they finished, with all the men that had taken strange women by the first day of the first month.