Ezra 10:1-4

TEXT AND VERSE-BY-VERSE COMMENT

D. The community is cleansed, and a list of the offenders is given.

1.

A decision is reached by those who heard Ezra pray.

TEXT, Ezra 10:1-4

1

Now while Ezra was praying and making confession; weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women, and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly.

2

And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have been unfaithful to our God, and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.

3

So now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and their children, 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.

4

Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act.

COMMENT

In Ezra 10:1 there is a switch from the first to the third person; we have observed (see comments on Ezra 5:4, where Ezra uses the first person where we would expect the third person) that this is frequently done in the O.T., sometimes for no discernible reason. It is always hazardous to build great critical theories on something as small as a personal pronoun, especially in Hebrew.

As Ezra wept, many others were attracted to the gathering (Ezra 9:4 has already spoken of a number who had been attracted by Ezra's conduct) and joined him in weeping; probably because they joined him in making confession. Perhaps some were realizing for the first time the consequences which their sins could have for the entire nation, for sin and disobedience to God is never a merely private affair. They had probably gathered out of sympathy or curiosity, because of Ezra's obvious pain; but they would surely not have responded thus unless they were as convinced of the critical nature of the problem as he was.

Ezra 10:2: Shecaniah came forward and. took the lead in acknowledging the wrong, although he is not named among the offenders, nor was he a priest. Rather, he was of the family of Elam (Ezra 8:7), of the people of Israel (common people distinguished from priests and Levites), though not its leader. The name of his father, Jehiel, appears again in Ezra 10:26, also as one of the family of Elam; this raises the possibility that Shecaniah's own father was among those whose sin Shecaniah was confessing. It was a common name, however, and this cannot be said with certainty.

Ezra 10:3. suggests the making of a covenant. This was an elaborate and serious process. More detail will be given under the Word Studies for this chapter, It was suggested that the covenant require divorce (putting away) as a solution to the problem. Certainly this was no easy solution nor was the problem an easy problem. When sin enters the picture there are bound to be some tragic results.

Reference has already been made (see Ezra 9:2) to the possibility of conversion to maintain the marriage.

Those who tremble at God's commandment have been mentioned before, at Ezra 9:4, assembling about Ezra as he began his prayer, The trembling may express a number of things in the O.T. In 1 Samuel 13:7 it is used of fear before a battle. In 2 Kings 4:13 it is used of care and concern that a servant girl had for her master. There is still a place for fear as a part of reverence toward God as we think of the consequences of violating His word.

There were two groups, then, who gathered about Ezra: the public minded religiously concerned of Ezra 9:4, and the more diversified group in Ezra 10:1.

Ezra 10:4 pledges the support of all those people for whom Shecaniah was the spokesman, in supporting Ezra in his demands before the country's leaders.

WORD STUDIES

COVENANT (Ezra 10:3, Berith): comes from the verb, eat. To make (literally, cut) a covenant, persons butchered and cut up a domestic vegetarian (peaceful) animal (see Genesis 15) and arrived at their agreements around a table of good fellowship. Peace treaties, religious obligations, personal contracts were all sealed in this way. God's covenant with man always had this connotation of fellowship, or sharing, including His obligation to bless if the covenant was kept.

TAKE OATH (Ezra 10:8, Shaba): swear, to seven oneself. Seven, a sacred number, calls attention also to offerings that would be made to seal an oath (Genesis 21:28 ff).