BOOK 15 OF 66 · HISTORY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ezra 10

Ezra book home•Chapter 10 of 10•44 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Ezra 10 Overview

A large assembly gathers in Jerusalem after Ezra’s confession. The leaders and people agree that the unlawful marriages must be examined and corrected, and appointed officials work through the cases over time. The book ends with a list of men involved, showing that covenant restoration remains unfinished and costly.

EzraBook

10Chapter

44Verses

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Before you read Ezra 10

Coming from

Chapter 9 ended with Ezra confessing the community’s guilt over marriages that threatened renewed covenant compromise and idolatry.

In this chapter

The community responds publicly, conducts an organized investigation, and separates from marriages judged contrary to the covenant requirements.

Leads into

Ezra ends with reform still emphasizing separation and covenant faithfulness; Nehemiah later continues the restoration story with Jerusalem’s walls, population, worship, and further reforms.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The proceedings are not completed in one emotional meeting. The assembly recognizes weather, numbers, and legal complexity, so designated leaders investigate cases over a period of months. The text records a severe post-exilic covenant remedy; it does not provide a general New Testament command that believers should divorce unbelieving spouses.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

True reform moves beyond sorrow to concrete correction, but it should still proceed with order and examination rather than uncontrolled reaction.

Truth 2

Leaders are not exempt from accountability; priests and Levites appear among those named.

Truth 3

The ending is intentionally sobering: return from exile and temple restoration did not eliminate Israel’s continuing need for faithfulness.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Deuteronomy 7 supplies the covenant background for the concern over marriages that could draw Israel into idolatry.

Connection 2

First Corinthians 7:12-13 explicitly tells a believer married to an unbelieving spouse not to divorce merely because the spouse is an unbeliever, showing that Ezra 10 should not be universalized across covenant settings.

Connection 3

Nehemiah 13 later faces a renewed version of the intermarriage problem.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not present Ezra 10 as a universal command for Christians to divorce unbelieving spouses; the New Testament gives different instruction for existing mixed-faith marriages.

Keep this clear 2

Do not reduce the issue to race or ethnicity. The biblical concern is covenant faithfulness and idolatrous influence.

Keep this clear 3

The final list reports historical accountability; being named in a covenant violation does not by itself tell us each person’s eternal destiny.

Read Ezra 10 watching for…

How the people respond to Ezra’s grief and prayer.

Why the matter cannot be settled instantly.

The role of appointed officials and investigation.

Which leadership groups are represented in the final list.

Why the book ends on a sober rather than triumphant note.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-5The people gather around Ezra, and Shechaniah calls for a covenant to correct the matter 6-14Ezra fasts, summons the people, and calls them to confess and separate from unlawful marriages 15-17The appointed leaders investigate the matter until the work is finished 18-44The priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and people involved are listed

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.

And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, 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, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.

Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.

Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this word. And they sware.

Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came thither, he did eat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away.

And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem;

And that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.

And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.

Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.

Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.

But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in this thing.

Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us.

Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.

And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.

And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month.

And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken strange wives: namely, of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren; Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.

And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass.

And of the sons of Immer; Hanani, and Zebadiah.

And of the sons of Harim; Maaseiah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah.

And of the sons of Pashur; Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethaneel, Jozabad, and Elasah.

Also of the Levites; Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah, (the same is Kelita,) Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.

Of the singers also; Eliashib: and of the porters; Shallum, and Telem, and Uri.

Moreover of Israel: of the sons of Parosh; Ramiah, and Jeziah, and Malchiah, and Miamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah.

And of the sons of Elam; Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Eliah.

And of the sons of Zattu; Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and Zabad, and Aziza.

Of the sons also of Bebai; Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai.

And of the sons of Bani; Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, and Ramoth.

And of the sons of Pahathmoab; Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezaleel, and Binnui, and Manasseh.

And of the sons of Harim; Eliezer, Ishijah, Malchiah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,

Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah.

Of the sons of Hashum; Mattenai, Mattathah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei.

Of the sons of Bani; Maadai, Amram, and Uel,

Benaiah, Bedeiah, Chelluh,

Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,

Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasau,

And Bani, and Binnui, Shimei,

And Shelemiah, and Nathan, and Adaiah,

Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,

Azareel, and Shelemiah, Shemariah,

Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph.

Of the sons of Nebo; Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, and Joel, Benaiah.

All these had taken strange wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children.

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Ezra 10:3

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