Ezra 10:1-17

The People Confess Their Sin

1 ¹While Ezra prayed and ²made confession, weeping and ³casting himself down ⁴before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly.

2 And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: ⁵"We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.

3 Therefore ⁶let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and ⁷their children, according to the counsel of my lord ^[a] and of ⁸those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done ⁹according to the Law.

4 Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; ¹⁰be strong and do it."

5 Then Ezra arose and made the leading priests and Levites and all Israel ¹¹take oath that they would do as had been said. So they took the oath.

6 Then Ezra withdrew ¹²from before the house of God and went to the ¹³chamber of ¹⁴Jehohanan the son of ¹⁵Eliashib, where he spent the night,^[b] neither ¹⁶eating bread nor drinking water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles.

7 And a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem,

8 and that if anyone did not come within three days, by order of the officials and the elders all his property should be forfeited, and he himself banned from the congregation of the exiles.

9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. And all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the ¹⁷heavy rain.

10 And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel.

11 Now then ¹⁸make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers and do his will. ¹⁹Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives."

12 Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, "It is so; we must do as you have said.

13 But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain; we cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a task for one day or for two, for we have greatly transgressed in this matter.

14 Let our officials stand for the whole assembly. Let all in our cities who have taken foreign wives come ²⁰at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every city, ²¹until the fierce wrath of our God over this matter is turned away from us."

15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this, and ²²Meshullam and ²³Shabbethai the Levite supported them.

16 Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men,^[c] heads of fathers' houses, according to their fathers' houses, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter;

17 and by the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women.

Ezra 10:1-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZRA 10

Upon Ezra's prayer and confession, it was proposed by Shechaniah, that those who had married strange wives should put them away with their children, which they swore to do, Ezr 10:1-5, and proclamation was made throughout the land for all to meet at Jerusalem in three days' time, and accordingly they did, Ezr 10:6-9 when, at the exhortation of Ezra, all agreed to it, and persons were appointed to see it done, and the work was finished in the space of three months, Ezr 10:10-17 and a list of the names of those is given who had married such wives, and now put them away; of the priests, Ezr 10:18-22, of the Levites, Ezr 10:23,24, of the other Israelites, Ezr 10:24-44.

Cross References

• 1. Nehemiah 1:4, 5
• 2. Nehemiah 1:6; Daniel 9:20
• 3. Deuteronomy 9:18
• 4. [2 Chronicles 20:9]
• 5. See Ezra 9:2
• 6. 2 Chronicles 34:31
• 7. [ver. 44]
• 8. Ezra 9:4
• 9. Deuteronomy 7:2, 3
• 10. 1 Chronicles 28:10; [2 Chronicles 19:11]
• 11. Nehemiah 5:12; Nehemiah 13:25
• 12. ver. 1
• 13. Ezra 8:29
• 14. Nehemiah 12:22, 23
• 15. Nehemiah 3:1
• 16. Deuteronomy 9:18
• 17. [1 Samuel 12:18]
• 18. [Joshua 7:19]
• 19. ver. 3
• 20. Nehemiah 13:31
• 21. 2 Chronicles 29:10; 2 Chronicles 30:8; [Numbers 25:4]
• 22. Ezra 8:16
• 23. Nehemiah 11:16

Footnotes

• [a]. Or of the Lord
• [b]. Probable reading; Hebrew where he went
• [c]. Syriac; Hebrew And there were selected Ezra...