Ezra 10:44

All these had taken strange wives So also the R.V., a different phrase in the original from that rendered -had married strange women". See on Ezra 9:2.

and some of them had wives bywhom they had children So R.V. Marg. Or, some of the wives had borne children. The clause in the original is beset with difficulties. Literally rendered it seems to be -And there were of them (masc.) wives, and they (masc.) begat children". The LXX. renders freely -And they begat of them sons" (καὶ ἐγέννησαν ἐξ αὐτῶν υἱούς) agreeing generally with the A.V. and R.V. text. The Vulgate has -And there were of them wives which had borne children", agreeing with the margin of the R.V. This, it must be confessed, gives the best sense, although it does violence to the grammar in the matter of genders. The exact purpose of the clause is also a matter of uncertainty. (1) By some it is supposed that the clause is intended to illustrate the difficulties with which this general divorce was attended. The action was complicated by the question of the children. (2) Others think that it is added to show how thoroughly the commission was carried out. Mothers and their children were alike driven forth, in accordance with Shecaniah's proposal (Ezra 10:3) -Let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and such as are born of them". The probability that we are here confronted with another instance of textual corruption receives support from the parallel passage, 1Es 9:36 -And they put them away along with their children", which suggests the existence of a different original text.