Ezra 10: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Ezra prays and weeps in front of the temple, and a large crowd gathers and weeps with him. Shechaniah proposes that the men who married foreign women make an agreement before God to send away those wives and the children born to them, and Ezra puts the leaders under oath. All the men of Judah and Benjamin are summoned to Jerusalem, where they agree to the plan and ask that it be handled town by town over time. A commission works from the first day of the tenth month to the first day of the first month, and the chapter closes with a list of the men involved, by family.

Claim by Claim

1. 10:1
   • Ezra prayed.
   • Ezra made confession.
   • Ezra wept.
   • Ezra threw himself down before the house of God.
   • A very great assembly of Israelites gathered to him.
   • The assembly consisted of men, women, and children.
   • The people wept very bitterly.
2. 10:2
   • Shechaniah son of Jehiel answered Ezra.
   • Shechaniah was of the sons of Elam.
   • Shechaniah said that they had acted unfaithfully against their God.
   • Shechaniah said that they had married foreign women from the peoples of the land.
   • Shechaniah said that even so there was still hope for Israel concerning this.
3. 10:3
   • Shechaniah proposed making a covenant with their God.
   • The covenant was to send away all the foreign wives.
   • The covenant was to send away the children born of those wives.
   • The action was to follow the counsel of my lord, which may mean Ezra or may mean the Lord.
   • The action was to follow the counsel of those who tremble at the commandment of God.
   • Shechaniah said it should be done according to the law.
4. 10:4
   • Shechaniah told Ezra to arise.
   • Shechaniah said the matter rested on Ezra.
   • Shechaniah said they would be with Ezra.
   • Shechaniah told Ezra to be strong.
   • Shechaniah told Ezra to act.
5. 10:5
   • Ezra arose.
   • Ezra made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear to act according to this word.
   • They swore.
6. 10:6
   • Ezra rose from before the house of God.
   • Ezra went to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib.
   • While he was there he ate no bread.
   • While he was there he drank no water.
   • He was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
7. 10:7
   • A proclamation was sent through Judah and Jerusalem.
   • The proclamation was addressed to all the exiles.
   • The proclamation ordered them to gather at Jerusalem.
8. 10:8
   • Anyone who did not come within three days would have all his property forfeited.
   • The penalty was set according to the counsel of the officials and the elders.
   • Anyone who did not come would himself be separated from the assembly of the exiles.
9. 10:9
   • All the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within the three days.
   • It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month.
   • All the people sat in the open square before the house of God.
   • The people were trembling because of this matter.
   • The people were trembling because of the heavy rains.
10. 10:10
    • Ezra the priest stood up.
    • Ezra said to them that they had acted unfaithfully.
    • Ezra said they had married foreign women.
    • Ezra said this added to the guilt of Israel.
11. 10:11
    • Ezra told them to make confession to the LORD, the God of their fathers.
    • Ezra told them to do his will.
    • Ezra told them to separate themselves from the peoples of the land.
    • Ezra told them to separate themselves from the foreign wives.
12. 10:12
    • The whole assembly answered.
    • They said with a loud voice that they must do as Ezra had said.
13. 10:13
    • They said the people were many.
    • They said it was the season of rains.
    • They said they were not able to stand outside.
    • They said the task was not for one day or two.
    • They said they had transgressed greatly in this matter.
14. 10:14
    • They proposed that their officials stand for the whole assembly.
    • They proposed that everyone in their cities who had married foreign women come at appointed times.
    • They proposed that the elders of each city come with them.
    • They proposed that the judges of each city come with them.
    • The purpose was that the fierce anger of their God over this matter be turned away from them.
15. 10:15
    • Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah stood over this matter, which may mean they were appointed to it or that they opposed it.
    • Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them.
16. 10:16
    • The exiles acted accordingly.
    • Ezra the priest and men who were heads of fathers' houses were set apart, each designated by name.
    • They sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.
17. 10:17
    • They finished with all the men who had married foreign women.
    • They finished by the first day of the first month.
18. 10:18
    • Some of the sons of the priests were found to have married foreign women.
    • Among the sons of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers were Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.
19. 10:19
    • They pledged to send away their wives.
    • Being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.
20. 10:20
    • Of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.
21. 10:21
    • Of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.
22. 10:22
    • Of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
23. 10:23
    • Of the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah, Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
    • Kelaiah is the same as Kelita.
24. 10:24
    • Of the singers: Eliashib.
    • Of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25. 10:25
    • Of Israel, of the sons of Parosh: Ramiah, Jeziah, Malchiah, Miamin, Eleazar, Malchijah, and Benaiah.
26. 10:26
    • Of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah.
27. 10:27
    • Of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza.
28. 10:28
    • Of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai.
29. 10:29
    • Of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Ramoth.
30. 10:30
    • Of the sons of Pahath-moab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh.
31. 10:31
    • Of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Ishijah, Malchiah, Shemaiah, Shimeon.
32. 10:32
    • The list continues with Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah.
33. 10:33
    • Of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei.
34. 10:34
    • Of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, and Uel.
35. 10:35
    • The list continues with Benaiah, Bedeiah, and Chelluh.
36. 10:36
    • The list continues with Vaniah, Meremoth, and Eliashib.
37. 10:37
    • The list continues with Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasau.
38. 10:38
    • The list continues with Bani, Binnui, and Shimei.
39. 10:39
    • The list continues with Shelemiah, Nathan, and Adaiah.
40. 10:40
    • The list continues with Machnadebai, Shashai, and Sharai.
41. 10:41
    • The list continues with Azarel, Shelemiah, and Shemariah.
42. 10:42
    • The list continues with Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph.
43. 10:43
    • Of the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, Joel, and Benaiah.
44. 10:44
    • All these men had married foreign women.
    • Some of these wives had borne children.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1

The house of God is the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, which stood on a raised platform with an open courtyard in front of it. Ezra was praying in that public space, in full view, which is why a crowd could gather around him. Weeping aloud and throwing yourself face down on the ground were recognized, deliberate public signs of grief and guilt in this world, not just private feeling.

10:2

The people in this chapter are Judeans whose families had been deported to Babylon a few generations earlier and who had returned to Judah, now a province of the Persian empire. "Foreign women from the peoples living around us" translates a phrase, "the people of the land," used here for the surrounding population who had not been deported. The law of Moses forbade marriage with the neighboring nations (Deuteronomy 7:1-4; Exodus 34:15-16), which is what makes this a legal matter and not only a social one. "Elam" here is not the country of that name but the name of an ancestor: the returning exiles were organized and recorded in family groups named after a forefather (see the list in Ezra 2). "Unfaithful" renders a Hebrew word used for a serious breach of trust, especially the misuse of something holy.

10:3

A covenant is a formal, binding commitment sworn before God, with consequences attached, closer to a sworn contract than to a private resolution. "Send away" is the ordinary Hebrew term for divorce. "Those who tremble at the command of our God" is a set phrase of the period for people who treat God's law with fear and seriousness. "My lord" here means Ezra.

10:4

Ezra was not only a scholar of the law. He carried a written commission from the Persian king Artaxerxes authorising him to appoint judges and enforce Jewish law in the province, with penalties (Ezra 7:25-26). "This matter is your responsibility" points to that legal standing.

10:5

Priests were the descendants of Aaron, who alone offered the sacrifices. Levites were the wider tribe of Levi, who did the temple's other work (music, guarding the doors, teaching, maintenance) and ranked below the priests. An oath sworn in God's name was legally binding, not a figure of speech.

10:6

The temple complex had side rooms built against it, used for storing supplies, for meetings, and as lodging for priests and officials. Going without food and water was the standard form of mourning and self-humbling; it was expected to be visible to others.

10:7

The exiles were the people who had been carried off to Babylon when its army captured Jerusalem about seventy years earlier. Persia later beat Babylon and let them go home. This chapter is about them and their children.

10:8

Losing all his property means confiscation, the goods would be dedicated to the temple rather than simply seized by neighbors. Being put out of the assembly meant losing membership in the returned-exile community altogether, and with it a share in the land allotments and the right to worship with them. These were the two heaviest penalties the community could impose without the state.

10:9

The ninth month of the Jewish calendar (Chislev) falls in roughly November-December. In Jerusalem this is the middle of the rainy season, which runs from about November to March, and it is genuinely cold. The people were sitting outdoors in the open plaza in front of the temple, in the rain.

10:10

The King James "transgressed" and "trespass" translate a Hebrew word for breaking faith, the betrayal of a trust, rather than a minor slip.

10:11

"Do his pleasure" in 1611 English means do what he wants, carry out his will. It carries no idea of giving God enjoyment.

10:13

"Stand without" uses without in its older sense of outside, out of doors. The complaint is practical: thousands of people cannot go on standing in the winter rain while cases are heard one by one.

10:14

Each town had its own body of elders and judges who handled legal cases locally, traditionally meeting at the town gate. The proposal is to shift the enquiry from one mass meeting in the rain to scheduled hearings, town by town, with the local authorities present as witnesses.

10:15

The Hebrew here is ambiguous and translators divide over it. It says literally that these four men "stood over" or "stood against" this matter. That can mean they were appointed to take charge of it, or that they took a stand against the proposal. The King James takes the first sense ("were employed about this matter"); many modern versions take the second ("opposed this"). The text as it stands does not settle which.

10:16

"Heads of families," literally "heads of fathers' houses," were the leaders of the extended-family groups by which the returned exiles were organized, taxed and recorded. Naming each man individually made the panel a matter of public record.

10:17

The first day of the first month is the start of the month Nisan, in roughly March-April, so the enquiry ran about three months from the date given in verse 16.

10:18

Jeshua son of Jozadak was the high priest who had come back with the first group of returning exiles (Ezra 3:2), so this list begins with the family at the very top of the priesthood. Priests were held to stricter marriage rules than other Israelites (Leviticus 21).

10:19

"Gave their promise" is literally "gave their hand", a clasp of hands that sealed a pledge, like a handshake on a contract. The guilt offering was a specific sacrifice prescribed in the law (Leviticus 5-6) for wrongs that required compensation as well as forgiveness; a ram was the animal named for it.

10:20

From here to the end of the chapter the men are grouped under the names of ancestors (Immer, Harim, Pashur and the rest) because the returning exiles were registered by family group. The same family names appear in the register of returnees in Ezra 2. Verses 18-24 cover temple staff (priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers); verse 25 onward covers everyone else.

10:23

The Levites were one family group in Israel. They helped at God's house.

10:24

Singers and gatekeepers were hereditary orders of temple servants, reckoned among the Levites. The singers provided the music for worship; the gatekeepers controlled who and what came in and out of the temple courts, and guarded the stores.

10:25

"Moreover of Israel" marks the switch from temple staff to ordinary Israelites. The list has worked through priests, Levites, singers and gatekeepers first, then turns to everyone else.

10:30

Pahath-moab is a family name meaning "governor of Moab." How the family got the name is unknown; by this period it was simply one of the largest clans among the returned exiles (Ezra 2:6).

10:38

The Hebrew of verses 34-38 is uncertain here. The King James reads "and Bani, and Binnui," treating them as two more men in the list; other translations divide the words differently and read "of the sons of Binnui," starting a new family group. This is why English versions of these verses do not match one another.

10:44

The last clause of the chapter is obscure in Hebrew, and the ancient versions differ. The King James takes it to mean that some of these men had children by these wives. Others, following the Greek text of 1 Esdras, read it as saying that they sent the wives away together with their children. The book ends at this point; it does not say what became of the women and children.