Ezra 10:1-4

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."

Ezra 10:1-4 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]

Footnotes

• [a]. Or of the Lord