Ezra 10:17

_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._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

15-44 The best reformers can but do their endeavour; when the Redeemer himself shall come to Zion, he shall effectually turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And when sin is repented of and forsaken, God will forgive it; but the blood of Christ, our Sin-offering, is the only atonement which takes away our guilt. No seeming repentance or amendment will benefit those who reject Him, for self-dependence proves them still unhumbled. All the names written in the book of life, are those of penitent sinners, not of self-righteous persons, who think they have no need of repentance....

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....

The business occupied the commission full two months. In some cases, it may be presumed, they had to summon persons before them who did not wish to part with their foreign wives; in all, they had to assure themselves that the wives were foreign; finally, they had in every case where they decreed a divorce to make out the “writing of divorcement” Ezra 10:3....

EXPOSITION REPENTANCE OF THE PEOPLE, AND COVENANT SWORN TO, ON THE RECOMMENDATION OF SHECHANIAH (Ezra 10:1). While Ezra was uttering his prayer aloud, upon his knees, in front of the temple, where the evening sacrifice was being offered upon the great brazen altar (Ezra 3:2), the people gathered about him, heard what he said, and had their feelings so stirred that numbers of them burst into tears and "wept very sore" (Ezra 10:1). When he had ended, Sheehaniah, the son of Jehiel, took the word, and suggested an

AND THEY MADE AN END WITH ALL THE MEN THAT HAD TAKEN STRANGE WIVES,.... Finished their inquiry and examination of them: BY THE FIRST DAY OF THE FIRST MONTH; the month Nisan, answering to part of March and April; so that they were three months about this work....

FIRST MONTH That is, April....

CHAPTER 10 _ 1. The effect of Ezra's prayer on the people (Ezra 10:1)_ 2. Ezra summons an assembly (Ezra 10:5) 3. The gathering, confession and the evil judged (Ezra 10:9) 4. The register of those who had married strange women (Ezra 10:18) Ezra 10:1. Ezra's prayer, confession and humiliation were before the house of the LORD.” The people saw his great sorrow and his tears, they heard his words confessing the nation's sins. It produced a wonderful effect among the people. “There assembled unto him out of Israel a great congregation of me

THE JEWS ASSEMBLE IN JERUSALEM; OFFICERS ARE APPOINTED FROM EACH CITY TO SEE THAT THE FOREIGN WIVES ARE PUT AWAY. Ezra 10:6. Jehohanan: _cf._ Nehemiah 12:13. AND WHEN HE CAME THITHER: read, and he lodged there (_mg.), i.e._ spent the night there. Ezra 10:8. forfeited: devoted, _i.e._ put under a religious ban (see pp. 99, 114, Deuteronomy 2:34 * Joshua 6:17 *). SEPARATED FROM THE CONGREGATION: equivalent to the later put out of the synagogue; _cf._...

THE FIRST DAY OF THE FIRST MONTH. See note on Genesis 8:13. Ezra's last date. The commission, therefore, sat for eighty-eight days....