Bible Chapter Summary
Ezra 10 Summary
Covenant to Separate from Strange Wives
Ezra weeps and confesses before the house of God, and a great congregation of men, women, and children assemble, weeping very sore. Shecaniah proposes that they make a covenant with God to put away all strange wives according to the law. Ezra makes the priests, Levites, and all Israel swear to do so. After proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem, all men of Judah and Benjamin gather within three days. Ezra calls them to make confession and separate themselves from the peoples of the land and strange wives, and the congregation agrees. The people are examined by appointed rulers, and all those who had taken strange wives are identified and separated, completing the matter by the first day of the first month.
Key themes
Key verses
Ezra 10:1
“Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.”
Ezra 10:3
“Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.”
Ezra 10:11
“Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.”
Ezra 10:17
“And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month.”
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