Ezra 10:19

19 They pledged^[a] to send their wives away, and being guilty, [they offered] a ram from 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 and by the first day of the first month they had dealt with all the men who had married foreign women.

18 [The following] were found to have married foreign women from the descendants of the priests: from the descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.

19 They pledged to send their wives away, and being guilty, [they offered] a ram from the flock for their guilt;

20 Hanani and Zebadiah from Immer's descendants;

21 Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah from Harim's descendants;

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit gave their hand