Ezra 10:11

11 Therefore, make a confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will. Separate yourselves from the surrounding peoples and [your] foreign wives."

Ezra 10:11 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 10:11

Now therefore make confession to the Lord God of your fathers,
&c.] Of their sin, and express their detestation of it, and repentance for it:

and do his pleasure;
obey his will, and particularly in this case:

and separate yourselves from the people of the land;
the Canaanites, &c. have no fellowship with them, make no covenants, contracts, and alliances with them for the future;

and from the strange wives;
they had taken; put them away.

Ezra 10:11 In-Context

9 So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered in Jerusalem within the three days. On the twentieth [day] of the ninth month, all the people sat in the square at the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain.

10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to Israel's guilt.

11 Therefore, make a confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will. Separate yourselves from the surrounding peoples and [your] foreign wives."

12 Then all the assembly responded with a loud voice: "Yes, we will do as you say!

13 But there are many people, and it is the rainy season. We don't have the stamina to stay out in the open. This isn't something that can be done in a day or two, for we have rebelled terribly in this matter.