The Return · 458–457 BC
Chapter 15
Ezra’s Grief
Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God’s house, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly.
For parents
Ezra tears his clothes and pulls out hair from his head and his beard in grief (Ezra 9:3). Shecaniah proposes a covenant to send away the foreign wives and the children born to them. All Israel swears to do it, the assembly agrees to separate from the foreign women, and the first priests named promise to send their wives away (10:2–19). The chapter ends with the list of the men who had married foreign women, some of whom had children with these wives (10:18–44).
was a who knew the law of through and through, the law that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. He had made up his mind to study the Lord’s law, to do what it said, and to teach its laws and rulings in Israel. In the seventh year of King he had come up from to , setting out on the first day of the first month and arriving on the first day of the fifth. Some of the people of Israel had come with him: , , singers, gatekeepers and temple servants. The king had given Ezra everything he asked for, because the kind hand of his God was on him.
In God’s house the silver, the gold and the vessels they had brought were counted and weighed, and every weight was written down. The exiles who had come home offered to the God of Israel. The king’s orders were handed to his governors, and the governors gave their support to the people and to God’s house.
When all this was done, the leaders came to Ezra. “The people of Israel, the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands,” they said. “They follow those peoples’ detestable ways, the ways of the , the , the , the , the , the , the and the . They and their sons have married those peoples’ daughters, so the holy offspring have mixed with the peoples of the lands. And the leaders and rulers have led the way in this wrong.”
When Ezra heard this, he tore his clothes and his robe. He pulled out hair from his head and from his beard, and he sat down, stunned.
Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel joined him, because of the wrong done by the exiles who had come home. And Ezra sat there, stunned, until the evening offering.
At the evening offering, Ezra got up from where he had sat humbled, his clothes and his robe still torn. He fell on his knees and spread out his hands to the Lord his God.
“My God,” he said, “I am ashamed and too embarrassed to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins have piled up over our heads and our guilt has grown as high as the heavens. Ever since our ancestors’ days we have been deeply guilty, right up to now. Because of our wrongdoing, we, our kings and our priests have been put into the power of the kings of other lands, to be killed by the sword, carried off as captives, robbed and shamed, and it is still that way today.
“But now, for a little while, the Lord our God has been gracious to us. He has let some of us escape. He has given us a peg to hold on to in his holy place, so that our God can make our eyes shine and give us a little new life in our slavery. We are slaves, but even so our God has not abandoned us. In front of the kings of he has shown us his loving kindness. He has brought us back to life so that we could raise up our God’s house again and repair its ruins. He has also given us a wall in and in Jerusalem.
“And now, our God, what are we to say after this? We have turned away from your commands, the ones you gave us through your servants the . You said, ‘The land you are going to take for your own is an land. The peoples of the lands have made it unclean with their detestable ways, and those ways have filled it with filth from end to end. So don’t let your daughters marry their sons, or your sons marry their daughters. Never try to bring them peace or help them do well. That way you will be strong and enjoy the good things of the land, and you can pass it on to your children to keep forever.’
“All this has come on us because of the evil we did and our great guilt. Yet you, our God, have punished us less than our wrongs deserve, and you have let these few of us survive. So should we break your commands again and join with the peoples who do these detestable things? Wouldn’t you be angry with us until you had wiped us out, until there were no survivors left and no one escaped?
“Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous, for we have been left as survivors who escaped, and we are still here today. Look, here we are in front of you, guilty. Because of this, no one can stand in your presence.”
Ezra prayed and confessed, weeping and throwing himself to the ground in front of God’s house. As he did, a very great crowd of men, women and children from Israel gathered around him. The people were weeping bitterly.
Then son of Jehiel, of the family of Elam, spoke to Ezra. “We have wronged our God,” he said. “We have married foreign women of the peoples of the land. Yet even now there is hope for Israel about this.
“So let’s make a with our God: we will send away all these wives, and the children born to them. My lord advises it, and so do those who tremble at our God’s command. Let it be done according to the law. Stand up. This is yours to do, and we are with you. Be brave and do it.”
So Ezra got up. He made the heads of the priests, the Levites and all Israel swear to do what had been said, and they swore.
Then Ezra left the place in front of God’s house and went into the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. There he ate no bread and drank no water, because he was mourning over the wrong the exiles had done.
A message went out through all Judah and Jerusalem to everyone who had come back from captivity: they were to gather in Jerusalem. The leaders and the had decided that anyone who did not come within three days would lose everything he owned and be put out of the assembly of the returned exiles.
Every man of Judah and came together in Jerusalem before the three days were up. It was the twentieth day of the ninth month. The whole crowd sat in the wide square in front of God’s house, trembling because of this matter and because of the pouring rain.
Then Ezra the priest stood up. “You have done wrong,” he told them. “You have married foreign women and made Israel’s guilt greater. Now confess to the Lord, your ancestors’ God, and do what he wants. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women.”
The whole assembly answered in a loud voice, “We must do as you have said. But there are a lot of people, and it’s a time of heavy rain. We can’t stand out here in the open. And this is not a job for one day or two, because we have done great wrong in this. Let our leaders be put in charge of it for the whole assembly. Let the men in our towns who have foreign wives come at set times, each with his own town’s elders and judges, until our God’s fierce anger is turned away from us and this matter is settled.”
Only Asahel’s son Jonathan and Tikvah’s son Jahzeiah stood up against this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.
The returned exiles did as they had agreed. Ezra the priest and some heads of families were set apart, family by family, each of them by name. They sat down to look into the matter on the first day of the tenth month, and they had finished with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.
Among the priests’ families, some men were found who had married foreign women. From the family of son of Jozadak and his brothers there were Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. They gave their hands as a promise that they would send their wives away, and because they were guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.
More priests were found from the family of Immer, two men; from Harim, five; and from Pashhur, six. Among them were Hanani, Uzziah and Ishmael.
Six Levites were found, among them Jozabad and Kelaiah, who was also called Kelita. There was one singer, Eliashib, and there were three gatekeepers, Shallum, Telem and Uri.
The rest were men of Israel, from the families of Parosh, Elam, Zattu, Bebai, Bani, Pahathmoab, Harim, Hashum and Nebo. Among them were Ramiah, Bezalel, Benjamin, Manasseh and Joseph.
All these had taken foreign wives. Some of them had children with these wives.