Ezra 10:18

_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._ Among the sons of the priests. From the names of so many men of rank appearing in the following list, some idea may be formed of the great and complicated difficulties attending the reformatory work....

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....

Compare with the list in Ezra 2. Ezra 10:19 THEY GAVE THEIR HANDS - i. e., “solemnly pledged themselves” (compare the marginal references). Ezra 10:44 The guilty persons, it would seem, were 113 in number. They comprised 4 members of the high priest’s family, 13 other priests, 10 Levites, and 86 lay Israelites belonging to at least 10 distinct families. The fact noted in the second clause of the verse must have increased the difficulity of Ezra’s task....

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 AMONG THE SONS OF THE PRIESTS THERE WERE FOUND THAT HAD TAKEN STRANGE WIVES,.... So that it need not be wondered at that this evil should spread among the people, when those who understood the law, and should have instructed the people in it, set such an example: namely, OF THE SONS OF JESHUA THE SON OF JOZADAK; who was the high priest; and perhaps for this fault of his, in not restraining his sons from such unlawful marriages, is he represented in filthy garments, Zechariah 3:3, AND HIS BRETHREN, MAASEIAH, AND ELIEZER, AND JARIB, AND GEDALIAH; these were the brethren of Jeshua....

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

A LIST OF THOSE WHO HAD MARRIED FOREIGN WIVES. These include seventeen priests, together with Levites, singers, and doorkeepers, and also laymen....

THE SONS OF JOSHUA. Who had come up with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:2). There were 973 priests of that house (Ezra 2:36). There were found guilty seventeen priests, ten Levites singers and sorters, and eighty-six lay people, making 118 in all....

Priests 18. _that had taken strange wives_ R.V. THAT HAD MARRIED STRANGE WOMEN: the R.V. puts a colon after -women", and a comma after -brethren". The -Jeshua the son of Jozadak" here mentioned is clearly the High-priest, the contemporary of Zerubbabel. In chap. Ezra 2:36 we have mention of -the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy and three". It is to the house of Jedaiah that these four priests belonged; for in that passage as in this, the houses of Immer, Harim and Pashur are mentioned immediately afterwards. Whether Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah were grandsons or only kinsmen of Jeshua the son of Jozadak we are not told....

4. The decision is carried out. TEXT, EZRA 10:16-19 16 But the exiles did so. And Ezra the priest selected men who were heads of fathers-' households for each of their fathers-' households, all of them by name. So they convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter. 17 And they finished investigating all the men who had married foreign wives by the first of the first month. 18 And among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers; Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19 And they pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense. COMMENT _Ezra 10:16_ shows Ezra once more appo