The Oath, the Separations and an Unfinished Ending

"Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore."

Shecaniah son of Jehiel speaks: "We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them… and let it be done according to the law. Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee."

Ezra makes the chief priests, Levites and all Israel swear. He fasts in the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. A proclamation summons everyone within three days; whoever does not come forfeits all his substance "and himself separated from the congregation." On the twentieth day of the ninth month all the people sit in the open square before the house of God, "trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain."

Ezra stands: "Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives… Now therefore make confession… and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives." The congregation answers, "As thou hast said, so must we do. But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain… neither is this a work of one day or two." "Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter [or: stood against this]: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them."

Ezra and the heads of families sit from the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter, and finish by the first day of the first month. The list follows: of the priests, sons of Jeshua son of Jozadak, who "gave their hands that they would put away their wives" and offered a ram for their guilt; of Immer, Harim and Pashur; Levites, a singer, gatekeepers; and men of Israel family by family. "All these had taken strange wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children."

What the text says, and does not say

Who objected? (10:15)

The Hebrew 'amdu 'al-zot is usually translated "stood against this" (opposed it), so that Jonathan and Jahzeiah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethai, opposed either the plan or the procedure. The KJV reads "were employed about this matter," making them its officers. The library's Greek (Giguet) reads "there were with me only Jonathan… and Jahzeiah," and the KJV text of 1 Esdras 9:14 says they "took this matter upon them." The same words can name dissenters or organizers; see the passage page.

The list

Seventeen priests (of Jeshua, Immer, Harim and Pashur), six Levites, one singer (Eliashib), three gatekeepers (Shallum, Telem, Uri), and 86 laymen of the families of Parosh, Elam, Zattu, Bebai, Bani, Pahath-moab, Harim, Hashum, Bani and Nebo: 113 men as the KJV divides the names (others count 110 or 111, reading some names differently). Leaders of the high-priestly family head the list. Measured against the 29,818 of Ezra 2, the number is small: the crisis touched leaders above all, or the list is selective.

The rain and the square

The twentieth of the ninth month (Kislev) falls in December, the season of the early rains. The detail of people shivering in the open square before the temple is one of the most vivid in the book.

The last verse (10:44)

The Hebrew reads literally: "All these had taken foreign wives, and there were among them wives, and they had set (wayyasimu) sons." The verb is odd; many scholars emend it to "they had borne" (wayyoledu), giving "some of them had wives who had borne children." The Vulgate: "and there were among them women who had borne sons." The library's Greek (Giguet): "and who had had children by them." The KJV text of 1 Esdras 9:36: "and they put them away with their children." 1 Esdras states what Ezra does not; whether it preserves an older reading or interprets the ending is debated. See the passage page.

Ezra and Nehemiah 13

Nehemiah meets the problem again, perhaps decades later: men of Judah married to women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab, whose children could not speak "the Jews' language." Nehemiah curses, strikes and pulls out the men's hair, makes them swear not to give their children in marriage, and expels a grandson of the high priest married to Sanballat's daughter (Nehemiah 13:23–31). The two accounts do not harmonize neatly; the recurrence suggests that Ezra's measures did not settle the matter.

Reading Ezra 10 with honesty

• Many readers find the separation of wives and children deeply troubling. The site does not hide that, and does not invent the women's testimony.
• Jewish tradition has generally understood the measure as dissolving marriages not valid under Torah and protecting the covenant community; rabbinic law later developed formal conversion, by which a foreign woman could join Israel as Ruth did.
• Christian readers have often read Ezra 9–10 alongside Paul's counsel that a believer should not leave an unbelieving spouse who is willing to stay (1 Corinthians 7:12–14), and have not treated Ezra 10 as a pattern to imitate.
• Some read the chapter as a necessary act of survival for a fragile community; others as a cautionary account of religious authority causing suffering. The text gives its own judgment (the marriages were trespass) without resolving the reader's questions.