Ezra 10
The full text of Ezra 10 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew and Aramaic. Free to read.
1 While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a very large assembly of men, women, and children from Israel gathered around him, and the people wept bitterly.
2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, "We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples of the land. But even now, there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
3 Now let us make a covenant with our God to send away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the command of our God. Let it be done according to the law.
4 Rise up, for this matter is your responsibility. We will support you; be strong and act."
5 So Ezra rose and made the leading priests, the Levites, and all Israel take an oath to do as had been said. And they took the oath.
6 Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. He went there but ate no food and drank no water, for he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
7 A proclamation was issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem that all the returned exiles should assemble in Jerusalem.
8 Anyone who did not come within three days, by the decision of the officials and elders, would have all his property confiscated and would himself be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.
9 So all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. All the people sat in the square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain.
10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have been unfaithful and have married foreign women, adding to the guilt of Israel.
11 Now make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives."
12 The whole assembly answered with a loud voice: "Yes! We must do as you say.
13 But there are many people, and it is the rainy season. We cannot stand outside. Besides, this is not a task for one or two days, because we have greatly transgressed in this matter.
14 Let our officials represent the whole assembly. Then let all in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, accompanied by the elders and judges of each city, until the fierce anger of our God over this matter is turned away from us."
15 Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them.
16 So the returned exiles did as proposed. Ezra the priest selected men who were heads of families, each identified by name. They convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter,
17 and by the first day of the first month they had finished dealing with all the men who had married foreign women.
18 Among the descendants of the priests who had married foreign women were found: from the descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.
19 They pledged to send away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram from the flock for their guilt.
20 From the descendants of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.
21 From the descendants of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.
22 From the descendants of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
23 From the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (that is, Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
24 From the singers: Eliashib. From the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25 From the Israelites: from the descendants of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malkijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Malkijah, and Benaiah.
26 From the descendants of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah.
27 From the descendants of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza.
28 From the descendants of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai.
29 From the descendants of Bani: Meshullam, Malluk, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth.
30 From the descendants of Pahath-Moab: Adna, Kelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh.
31 From the descendants of Harim: Eliezer, Ishijah, Malkijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,
32 Benjamin, Malluk, and Shemariah.
33 From the descendants of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei.
34 From the descendants of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel,
35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Keluhi,
36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,
37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu,
38 and Bani, and Binnui, and Shimei,
39 and Shelemiah, and Nathan, and Adaiah,
40 Maknadebai, Shashai, Sharai,
41 Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah,
42 Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph.
43 From the descendants of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, and Benaiah.
44 All these had married foreign women, and some of them had wives by whom they had children.
Translation notes (9)
- Ezra 10:3a Hebrew lehotsi (להוציא), literally 'to cause to go out', is not shillach, the usual verb for divorce (as in Deuteronomy 24:1). The unusual choice may signal that these unions were not regarded as valid marriages requiring formal divorce; 'send away' preserves the distinctive expression. Those who 'tremble' (charedim) at God's command echo the same term in Ezra 9:4.
- Ezra 10:6a A Jehohanan grandson of the high priest Eliashib served in the late fifth century, as the Elephantine papyri attest, and some historians date Ezra's mission accordingly under Artaxerxes II. Both names were common in priestly families, however, and the Jehohanan named here need not be that high priest; the text identifies him only as one who possessed a chamber in the temple precincts.
- Ezra 10:8a The Hebrew verb yochoram (יָחֳרַם), from the root of cherem, 'devoted thing', elsewhere denotes irrevocable dedication to God, often by destruction; here it signifies forfeiture of property to the temple. The penalty accords with the authority Artaxerxes granted in Ezra 7:26, which lists confiscation of goods among the sanctions available for enforcing the law.
- Ezra 10:9a The ninth month, Kislev, falls in November–December, the height of the cold rainy season in Judea. The plural geshamim (גְּשָׁמִים), 'heavy rains', denotes the drenching winter downpours, so the assembly shivered in the open square from the weather as well as from dread over the proceedings.
- Ezra 10:13a The Hebrew phrase et geshamim, literally 'the time of rains', refers to the winter rainy season in Judah. The assembly met in the ninth month, Kislev (Ezra 10:9), corresponding to November–December, when Jerusalem receives its heaviest rainfall, making a prolonged open-air gathering genuinely impracticable.
- Ezra 10:15a The Hebrew phrase amdu al-zot, literally 'stood over this', is ambiguous: it can mean these men stood against the proposal or that they stood over it as its appointed overseers. The King James tradition took the latter sense ('were employed about this matter'). This translation reads it as opposition, since the particle akh, 'only', suggests these four are set apart from the assenting assembly of verse 14.
- Ezra 10:16a The Masoretic Text's vayyibbadelu, 'were set apart', makes Ezra and the family heads joint subjects of a passive verb, an awkward construction. The rendering here follows the reading reflected in 1 Esdras 9:16, vayyavdel lo, 'and he selected for himself', which makes Ezra the one who appointed the panel. Either way, the family heads, not Ezra alone, conducted the inquiry.
- Ezra 10:17a The commission sat from the first day of the tenth month (verse 16) to the first day of the first month, a span of three months. The deliberate pace answers the people's plea in verse 13 that the matter could not be settled in a day or two, and the work proceeded through the winter rains mentioned in verse 9.
- Ezra 10:44a The final Hebrew clause is obscure, literally 'and they set children'. The Septuagint, followed by 1 Esdras 9:36, reads that the men sent the wives away together with their children, which many interpreters take as the intended sense. The Masoretic Text as it stands ends the book abruptly, without stating the outcome of the dismissals.
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