Ezra 5:10

5:3-17 While employed in God's work, we are under his special protection; his eye is upon us for good. This should keep us to our duty, and encourage us therein, when difficulties are ever so discouraging. The elders of the Jews gave the Samaritans an account of their proceedings. Let us learn hence, with meekness and fear, to give a reason of the hope that is in us; let us rightly understand, and then readily declare, what we do in God's service, and why we do it. And while in this world, we always shall have to confess, that our sins have provoked the wrath of God. All our sufferings spring from thence, and all our comforts from his unmerited mercy. However the work may seem to be hindered, yet the Lord Jesus Christ is carrying it on, his people are growing unto a holy temple in the Lord, for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

We asked their names also,.... The names of the elders, those that set men about this work: to certify that we might write the names of the men that were the chief of them; take the names of them in writing, that they might with certainty acquaint the king who they were, and that if it was necessary they might be called to an account for what they were doing.

CHAPTER 10 Ezr 10:1-17. Ezra Reforms the Strange Marriages. 1. Now when Ezra had prayed—As this prayer was uttered in public, while there was a general concourse of the people at the time of the evening sacrifice and as it was accompanied with all the demonstrations of poignant sorrow and anguish, it is not surprising that the spectacle of a man so respected, a priest so holy, a governor so dignified as Ezra, appearing distressed and filled with fear at the sad state of things, should produce a deep sensation; and the report of his passionate grief and expressions in the court of the temple having rapidly spread through the city, a great multitude flocked to the spot.Shechaniah encourageth Ezra to reform the strange marriages, Ezra 10:1-4. All Israel swear to do accordingly, Ezra 10:5. Ezra, mourning, assembleth the people, Ezra 10:6-8. The people at the exhortation of Ezra repent, and promise amendment, Ezra 10:9-14. Their care to perform it, Ezra 10:15-17. The names of them that married strange wives, Ezra 10:18-44. Awakened by the words and example of this holy priest and great potentate. So inexpressible is the good which is done by the good example, and the evil which is done by the bad example, of a great person, or of a minister. The fame of his great passion of grief, and of his many and public expressions thereof in the court before the temple, being in an instant dispersed over all the city, brought a great company together.

10 . We asked their names ] R.V. we asked them their names . So the Aramaic. For the names of the Elders, cf. Ezra 2:2 . the chief of them ] R.V. at the head of them. Literally ‘at or in the heads of them’. The R.V. renders as if the word was in the singular; cf. 2 Chronicles 20:27 , ‘Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them’, (lit. at their head). But the rendering ‘that were their heads’ would be equally correct, and would account for the use of the plural. Ezra 5:10

Hereupon the royal officials asked the elders of the Jews who had commanded them to build, and inquired concerning their names, that they might write to the king the names of the leading men (see the remark on 3 and 41). בראשׁהם דּי does not mean, who are at the head of them: but, who act in the capacity of heads.

Then one of the sons of Elam, Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, stood forth from amidst the assembly, and uttered the confession: "We have been unfaithful towards our God by marrying strange wives, but there is yet hope for Israel concerning this thing. We will now make a covenant with God to put away all the strange wives and their children from the congregation, according to the counsel of the Lord, and of those who fear the commandment of our God, that it may be done according to the law." Shecaniah, of the sons of Elam (comp. Ezra 2:7 ; Ezra 8:7 ), is a different person from the descendant of Zattu, mentioned Ezra 8:5 ; nor is Jehiel identical with the individual whose name occurs in Ezra 10:26 . ונּשׁב, and have brought home strange wives. הושׁיב, to cause to dwell (in one's house), said in Ezra 10:10 , Ezra 10:14 , Ezra 10:17 , Ezra 10:18 , and Nehemiah 13:23 , Nehemiah 13:27 , of bringing a wife home. Shecaniah founds his hope for Israel in this trespass upon the circumstance, that they bind themselves by a solemn covenant before God to put away this scandal from the congregation, and to act in conformity with the law. To make a covenant with our God, i.e., to bind themselves by an oath with respect to God, comp. 2 Chronicles 29:10 . הוציא, to put away - the opposite of הושׁיב. All the wives are, according to the context, all the strange women ( Ezra 10:2 ), and that which is born of them, their children.