Ezra 10:16

16 But the exiles * did so. And Ezra the priest selected men who were heads of fathers' households for each of their father's households, all of them by name. So they convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate 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 represent the whole assembly and let all those in our cities who have married foreign wives come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of each city, until the fierce anger of our God on account of this matter is turned away from us."

15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this, with Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them.

16 But the exiles did so. And Ezra the priest selected men who were heads of fathers' households for each of their father's households, all of them by name. So they convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter.

17 They finished investigating all the men who had married foreign wives by the first day of the first month.

18 Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah.

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb reads "there were set apart Ezra the priest, men..."
• [b]. Lit "sat"