Ezra 10 · WEB
The People's Response: Separation from Foreign Wives
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Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God's house, a very great assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him out of Israel; for the people wept very bitterly.
2Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, answered Ezra, "We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land. Yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing.
3Now therefore let's make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.
4Arise; for the matter belongs to you, and we will be with you. Be courageous and act."
5Then Ezra arose and made the chiefs of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear that they would do according to this word. So they swore.
6Then Ezra rose up from before God's house, and went into the room of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. When he came there, he ate no bread and drank no water; for he mourned because of the trespass of the captivity.
7They made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem;
8and that whoever didn't come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited and himself separated from the assembly of the captivity.
9Then 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 before God's house, trembling because of this matter and because of the rain.
10Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have trespassed and have married foreign women, to increase the guilt of Israel.
11Now therefore make confession to Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women."
12Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, "As you have said, so it is ours to do.
13But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand outside. Also this is not a work of one day or two; for we have greatly transgressed in this thing.
14Please let our princes be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every city, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned away from us, in this matter."
15Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this; and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them.
16The 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 on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.
17They finished examining all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.
18Among the sons of the priests, those who had married foreign women were found: of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.
19They gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.
20Of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.
21Of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.
22Of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
23Of the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (the same is Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
24Of the singers: Eliashib. Of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25Of Israel: of the sons of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Malchijah, and Benaiah.
26Of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah.
27Of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza.
28Of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai.
29Of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth.
30Of the sons of Pahathmoab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh.
31Of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,
32Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah.
33Of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei.
34Of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel,
35Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi,
36Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,
37Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu,
38Bani, Binnui, Shimei,
39Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah,
40Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,
41Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah,
42Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph.
43Of the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Iddo, and Joel, and Benaiah.
44All these had married foreign women; and some of them had children by these women.
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Summary
Ezra's public weeping generates a massive response: the people gather, weep with him, and Shecaniah speaks for them — "there is hope for Israel" — and calls for a covenant to send away the foreign wives and their children. A three-month process follows: the entire community is summoned to Jerusalem, an assembly is held in the rain and cold of December, and a judicial commission examines every case over the next three months. The book ends with a long list of the names of those who divorced their foreign wives — including priests, Levites, singers, and gatekeepers. It is a sobering, incomplete ending: the problem was addressed, but the human cost was enormous.
Themes
- The painful cost of genuine repentance and covenant fidelity
- Corporate accountability and the role of community in addressing sin
- "There is hope" as the turning point even in severe moral failure
Key verses
- Ezra 10:2-3 — “We have trespassed against our God... yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let's make a covenant with our God.”
- Ezra 10:4 — “Arise; for the matter belongs to you, and we will be with you. Be courageous and act.”
- Ezra 10:44 — “All these had married foreign women; and some of them had children by these women.”
Context & background
The command to divorce foreign wives is among the most difficult passages in Ezra for modern readers. It must be understood in its covenantal context: the Torah's prohibition was about religious loyalty (Deuteronomy 7:3-4), not ethnicity. Ruth the Moabitess and Rahab the Canaanite are welcome in the genealogy of David and ultimately of Christ. The issue was that these specific marriages violated covenant terms and were pulling the community toward pagan practice. The human cost — wives sent away, children separated — was real and painful; the book does not celebrate this as a triumph. The three-month process (v. 16-17) shows care for due process. The abrupt, anti-climactic ending — just a list of names — leaves the reader in the discomfort of unresolved tension.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 7:1-4 — The original prohibition; the religious (not racial) basis of the concern
- Galatians 3:28 — "Neither Jew nor Greek... you are all one in Christ Jesus" — the ultimate resolution of the covenant people's ethnic anxieties
- Malachi 2:14-16 — God hates divorce; the tension between this chapter and that text is real and unresolved
- Matthew 1:5 — Ruth and Rahab (both foreigners) in Jesus' genealogy; ethnicity was never the issue
- Nehemiah 13:23-27 — Nehemiah faces the same problem decades later; it was never fully resolved