Ezra 10:2

_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._ Shechaniah ... answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed. This was one of the leading men, who was not himself a delinquent in the matter, because his name does not occur in the following list. He spoke in the general name of the people, and his conduct evinced a tender conscience as well as no small fortitude in making such a proposal; because, since his father and five paternal uncles (Ezra 10:26) were involved in the guilt of unlawful marriages, he showed, by the measure he recommended, that he deemed it better to obey God than to please his nearest relatives. YET NOW THEN IS HOPE IN ISRAEL CONCERNING THIS THING. This hop

1-5 Shechaniah owned the national guilt. The case is sad, but it is not desperate; the disease threatening, but not incurable. Now that the people begin to lament, a spirit of repentance seems to be poured out; now there is hope that God will forgive, and have mercy. The sin that rightly troubles us, shall not ruin us. In melancholy times we must observe what makes for us, as well as against us. And there may be good hopes through grace, even where there is the sense of great guilt before God. The case is plain; what has been done amiss, must be undone again as far as possible; nothing less than this is true repentance. Sin must be put away, with a resolution never to have any thing more to do with it. What has been unjustly got, must be restored. Arise, be of good courage. Weeping, in this case, is good, but reforming is better. As to being unequally yoked with unbelievers, such marria...

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_ among the people; and Ezra, at present, stood in need of his influence and support. _YET NOW THERE IS HOPE IN ISRAEL_] מקוה _mikveh, expectation_, of pardon; for the people were convinced of the evil, and were _deeply_ _penitent_: hence it is said, Ezra 10:1, that _they wept sore_....

Jehiel was one of those who had taken an idolatrous wife Ezra 10:26; and Shechaniah had therefore had the evil brought home to him....

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 SHECHANIAH THE SON OF JEHIEL, ONE OF THE SONS OF ELAM, ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO EZRA,.... This man seems to be one of those that now came with Ezra from Babylon, see Ezra 8:3, WE HAVE TRESPASSED AGAINST OUR GOD, AND HAVE TAKEN STRANGE WIVES OF THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND; not that he had taken any himself, being but just come into the land, nor is his name in the list of those that had; but inasmuch as many of the nation, of which he was a part, and his own father, and several of his uncles had, Ezra 10:26, he expresses himself in this manner: YET NOW THERE IS HOPE IN ISRAEL CONCERNING THIS THING; of a reformation of this evil, and of pardon for it....

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 PEOPLE SWEAR TO PUT AWAY THEIR FOREIGN WIVES. The narrative now proceeds in the third person. Ezra 10:2. Shecaniah: a common name; not necessarily identical with the person of this name referred to in Ezra 10:26. YET NOW: _i.e._ nevertheless; the evil could be done away by making a covenant with God (see Ezra 10:3). Ezra 10:3. to put away all the wives. them: it does not seem to have struck Ezra that a better and more humane way would have been to receive the wives and children into the pale of Judaism....

THE SONS OF ELAM. Compare Ezra 10:26. ANSWERED AND SAID.. Hebrew idiom, by which the first verb "answered" must be rendered according to the context. Here. "confessed and said". TRESPASSED. acted treacherously. Hebrew. _ma'al_. App-44. PEOPLE. peoples. IN. for....

_And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel_, one _of the sons of Elam_ R.V. SHECANIAH. A Jehiel is mentioned in Ezra 10:26 as one -of the sons of Elam" that had married -strange women". It is hardly likely that Shecaniah would have taken action against his own father and mother (or stepmother); though, if he did, it would strikingly illustrate the intensity of the feeling aroused. -The children of Elam" are mentioned in Ezra 2:7; Ezra 8:7. _We have trespassed_ See on Ezra 9:2. _have taken strange wives_ R.V. HAVE MARRIED STRANGE WOMEN. -Have married" a word meaning literally -caused to dwell" used in this technical sense here and...