Ezra 10

Big idea: The hardest chapter in the post-exilic books. A crowd gathers around a praying man, someone proposes a covenant to send away the foreign wives and their children, an assembly agrees in the winter rain, and three months of case-by-case hearings produce a list of names — and then the book stops, with no verdict of any kind.

There is nothing after the list. Whatever the reader concludes about it, the book declines to conclude anything.

10:1–17 — Let it be done according to the law

The proposal does not come from Ezra. Shecaniah, one of the men whose own family is on the later list, says there is hope in Israel concerning this thing and proposes the covenant — and the phrase he uses, 'according to the counsel of my lord', puts the decision on Ezra while the initiative is his own. Ezra's role is to make them swear to it and then to fast.

¹ Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God’s house, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly. ² Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered Ezra, “We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land. Yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing. ³ Now therefore let’s make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and those who are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law. ⁴ Arise, for the matter belongs to you and we are with you. Be courageous, and do it.” ⁵ Then Ezra arose, and made the chiefs of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel to swear that they would do according to this word. So they swore. ⁶ Then Ezra rose up from before God’s house, and went into the room of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. When he came there, he didn’t eat bread or drink water, for he mourned because of the trespass of the exiles. ⁷ They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem; ⁸ and that whoever didn’t come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his possessions should be forfeited, and he himself separated from the assembly of the captivity. ⁹ Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the wide place in front of God’s house, trembling because of this matter, and because of the great rain. ¹⁰ Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have trespassed, and have married foreign women, increasing the guilt of Israel. ¹¹ Now therefore make confession to Yahweh, the God of your fathers and do his pleasure. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women.” ¹² Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “We must do as you have said concerning us. ¹³ But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand outside. This is not a work of one day or two, for we have greatly transgressed in this matter. ¹⁴ Now let our princes be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned from us, until this matter is resolved.” ¹⁵ Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this; and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them. ¹⁶ The children of the captivity did so. Ezra the priest, with certain heads of fathers’ households, after their fathers’ houses, and all of them by their names, were set apart; and they sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. ¹⁷ They finished with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.

10:18–44 — The list, and no verdict

The list runs by group — priests first, then Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and laymen by family — and it is short: about 111 men in a community of tens of thousands, so the practice was not universal. The priests are listed first because the standard was higher for them, and they are the only ones recorded as offering a guilt offering.

¹⁸ Among the sons of the priests there were found who had married foreign women: of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. ¹⁹ They gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt. ²⁰ Of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah. ²¹ Of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah. ²² Of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah. ²³ Of the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (also called Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. ²⁴ Of the singers: Eliashib. Of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem, and Uri. ²⁵ Of Israel: Of the sons of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Malchijah, and Benaiah. ²⁶ Of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah. ²⁷ Of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza. ²⁸ Of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai. ²⁹ Of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth. ³⁰ Of the sons of Pahathmoab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh. ³¹ Of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, ³² Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah. ³³ Of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei. ³⁴ Of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel, ³⁵ Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, ³⁶ Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, ³⁷ Mattaniah, Mattenai, Jaasu, ³⁸ Bani, Binnui, Shimei, ³⁹ Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah, ⁴⁰ Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, ⁴¹ Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, ⁴² Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph. ⁴³ Of the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Iddo, Joel, and Benaiah. ⁴⁴ All these had taken foreign wives. Some of them had wives by whom they had children.

Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).

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