CHAPTER X _The people are greatly afflicted by Ezra's prayer_, 1. _Shechaniah proposes that all who have taken strange wives_ _should put them away, and the children they had by them; and_ _make a covenant to serve God_, 2-4. _Ezra is encouraged; and make a proclamation to collect the_ _people... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezra 10:2. _SHECHANIAH THE SON OF JEHIEL_] He speaks here in the name of the people, not acknowledging _himself_ culpable, for he is not in the following list. It is in the same form of speech with that in James, James 3:9. _With the tongue curse we men_. He seems to have been a _chief man_ am... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezra 10:3. _LET US MAKE A COVENANT_] נכרת ברית _nichrath berith, let_ _us cut_ or _divide the covenant sacrifice_. Genesis 15:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezra 10:4. _ARISE; FOR_ THIS _MATTER_ BELONGETH UNTO THEE] By the decree of Artaxerxes, he was authorized to do everything that the law of God required: see Ezra 7:23-15. And all officers were commanded to be aiding and assisting; hence Shechaniah says, _We_ _are with you_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezra 10:5. _AND THEY SWARE._] The thing was evidently contrary to the law of God; and now he bound them by an _oath_ to rectify the abuse.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezra 10:6. _JOHANAN THE SON OF ELIASHIB_] Eliashib was high priest, and was succeeded in that office by his son Joiada, Nehemiah 12:10. Probably _Johanan_ here is the same as _Jonathan_ in Nehemiah, who was the son of _Joiada_, and grandson of _Eliashib_. Some suppose that _Johanan_ and _Joiad... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezra 10:8. _ALL HIS SUBSTANCE SHOULD BE FORFEITED_] To _the use of_ _the temple_. So the _Septuagint_ understood the place: Αναθεματισθησεται πασα ἡ ὑπαρξις αυτου, "All his substance shall be devoted to a holy use." _HIMSELF SEPARATED_] _Excommunicated_ from the Church of God, and _exiled_... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezra 10:9. _NINTH MONTH_] Answering to a part of our _December_. _TREMBLING BECAUSE OF - THE GREAT RAIN._] Απο του χειμωνος, _Because_ _of the winter, Septuagint_; it was now _December_, the coldest and most rainy part of the year in Palestine.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 11. _MAKE CONFESSION_] Acknowledge your sins before God, with deep compunction of heart, and the fullest resolution to forsake them.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 12. _AS THOU HAST SAID, SO MUST WE DO._] They all resolved to do what Ezra then commanded, they did put away their wives, even those by whom they had children; Ezra 10:44: this was a great hardship on the _women_ and _children_. Though by the Jewish laws such marriages were _null_ and _void_,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 17. _THE FIRST DAY OF THE FIRST MONTH_] So they were _three_ _whole months_ in examining into this affair, and making those _separations_ which the law required.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 19. _THEY GAVE THEIR HANDS_] They bound themselves in the most solemn manner to do as the rest of the delinquents had done; and they made all acknowledgment of their iniquity to God by offering each a _ram_ for a trespass-offering.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezra 10:25. _MOREOVER OF ISRAEL_] That is, as Calmet observes, _simple Israelites_, to distinguish them from the _priests,_ _Levites_, and _singers, mentioned_ in Ezra 10:18; Ezra 10:23; Ezra 10:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ezra 10:44. SOME _OF THEM HAD WIVES BY WHOM THEY HAD CHILDREN._] This observation was probably intended to show that only a _few_ of them had children; but it shows also how rigorously the law was put in execution. According to a passage in _Justin Martyr's_ dialogue with _Trypho_, a Jew, Ezr... [ Continue Reading ]