Ezra 10:19

19 {They pledged themselves} to put away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt.

Ezra 10:19 Meaning and Commentary

Ver. 19-43. And they gave their hands that they would put away their
wives
They proposed to do it, and actually did it:

and being guilty;
of which they were fully convinced:

they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass;
to make atonement for it, and thereby set an example to others to do the like. Aben Ezra observes, that we do not find that the trespass offering was a mulct to such who married strange wives, and conjectures, that it was the advice of the chief men to do it. From hence, to the end of ( Ezra 10:43 ) , is a list of the men that had married strange wives, and put them away; those in ( Ezra 10:20-22 ) , were priests; in ( Ezra 10:23 Ezra 10:24 ) , Levites, and those of them who were singers or porters; the rest were Israelites: and it is a very common distinction, in rabbinical writers, to distinguish the Jews into priests, Levites, and Israelites; of these we know no more than their names; some of the heads of the families may be observed in ( Ezra 2:1 ) .

Ezra 10:19 In-Context

17 They finished [investigating] all the men who married foreign women by the first day of the first month.

18 There was found from the sons of the priests those who had married foreign women, from the sons of Jeshua son of Jehozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.

19 {They pledged themselves} to put away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt.

20 From the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.

21 From the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "they gave their hand"