Ezra 10:16

16 So this was the plan they followed. Ezra selected leaders to represent their families, designating each of the representatives by name. On December 29, the leaders sat down 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 act on behalf of us all. Let everyone who has a pagan wife come at a scheduled time, accompanied by the leaders and judges of his city, so that the fierce anger of our God concerning this affair may be turned away from us.”

15 Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah opposed this course of action, and they were supported by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite.

16 So this was the plan they followed. Ezra selected leaders to represent their families, designating each of the representatives by name. On December 29, the leaders sat down to investigate the matter.

17 By March 27, the first day of the new year, they had finished dealing with all the men who had married pagan wives.

18 These are the priests who had married pagan wives: From the family of Jeshua son of Jehozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew On the first day of the tenth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was December 29, 458 ; also see note on 6:15 .