Ezra 10

This is the final chapter of Ezra. In Ezra 9, Ezra offered a prayer of confession after learning that the people who had returned from exile had intermarried with foreign women. This chapter records the people's response to that prayer and how the matter was resolved.

Outline

• Verses 1–4: As Ezra weeps and prays before the house of God, a great assembly gathers. Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, proposes a covenant to put away the foreign wives and the children born of them.
• Verses 5–6: Ezra makes the priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear an oath. He then withdraws to the chamber of Jehohanan, where he mourns, neither eating nor drinking.
• Verses 7–8: A proclamation summons the people to assemble in Jerusalem within three days. Anyone who fails to come is to forfeit his property and be separated from the congregation.
• Verses 9–12: On the twentieth day of the ninth month, the men of Judah and Benjamin gather in the open square before the temple amid heavy rain. In response to Ezra's demand, the congregation declares that it will comply.
• Verses 13–15: Because the people are many and it is raining, they propose appointing rulers (that is, leaders) to handle the matter city by city. Jonathan and Jahaziah take a different stance on the matter.
• Verses 16–17: The heads of the fathers' houses conduct the investigation from the first day of the tenth month to the first day of the first month.
• Verses 18–44: A list follows of those who had taken foreign wives, arranged as priests, Levites, singers, porters, and the rest of Israel. The priests offer a ram as a trespass offering (an offering of restitution for guilt).

Key Verses

• Ezra 10:3: "Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them" — this shows that the chapter's decision took the form of a covenant.
• Ezra 10:11: "Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure" — Ezra's call for communal repentance.
• Ezra 10:44: "and some of them had wives by whom they had children" — the entire book ends with this sentence.

People and Places

• Ezra: A priest and scribe who leads this reform.
• Shechaniah: A descendant of Elam who first proposes the covenant.
• Jehohanan: The son of Eliashib, in whose chamber Ezra fasts.
• Jonathan and Jahaziah: Men mentioned in connection with how the proposal of verses 13–14 was to be carried out.
• Jerusalem and the square before the Temple in Jerusalem: The place where the congregation assembled.

Points for Reflection

• Verse 15 is rendered differently in various translations. The Korean Revised Version says that Jonathan and the others "opposed" the matter, while the King James Version and others render it as meaning that they "were employed about" (that is, took charge of) the matter.
• The sending away of the wives and children is a point on which interpretations diverge.
• Many commentators view it as a religious measure intended to guard against idolatry, in keeping with the prohibition in Deuteronomy 7.
• Some scholars read it in contrast with the Book of Ruth, which tells of the acceptance of a Moabite woman.
• The text does not say what became of the women and children who were sent away.
• The same problem arises again in Nehemiah 13. The chapter is also sometimes read alongside Malachi 2:14–16, which rebukes divorce.
• In the New Testament, Paul counsels believers not to separate from an unbelieving spouse (1 Corinthians 7:12–16), and the two passages are therefore frequently compared.

In Korean Churches

In preaching, verses 1–12 are used mainly as a text on communal repentance and resolve. The chapter is also sometimes cited in discussions of marriage between believers and unbelievers.