Ezra 10:16

16 So the exiles went ahead with the plan. Ezra the priest picked men who were family heads, each one by name. They sat down together on the first day of the tenth month to pursue 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 the whole congregation. Have everybody who lives in cities and who has married a foreign wife come at an appointed time, accompanied by the elders and judges of each city. We'll keep at this until the hot anger of our God over this thing is turned away."
15 Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite, opposed this.
16 So the exiles went ahead with the plan. Ezra the priest picked men who were family heads, each one by name. They sat down together on the first day of the tenth month to pursue the matter.
17 By the first day of the first month they had finished dealing with every man who had married a foreign wife.
18 Among the families of priests, the following were found to have married foreign wives:
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.