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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18-44) List of the transgressors.

(19) They gave their hands.—The four members of the high priest’s family were peculiarly dealt with. They gave their distinct pledge, and offered each a special trespass offering. It is one among a multitude of similar tokens of authenticity in the history; and inventor would have given some reason for the peculiarity.

(22) Pashur.—Comparing Ezra 2:36-39, we find that all the priestly families that returned with Zerub-babel were implicated in the national offence.

(25) Of Israel.—Of the laity eighty-six are mentioned, belonging to ten races which returned with Zerubbabel.

(34) Bani.—Probably this should be some other name, as Bani occurs before. The peculiarly large number of the representatives of his race suggests that there is some confusion in the present text.

(44) All these had taken strange wives.—Though the numbers are not summed up and distributed, it is evident that this closing sentence is emphatic. Ezra ends his history with a catalogue of the delinquents—strong testimony to the importance he attached to the reformation. The last words—literally, and there were of them wives who had brought forth children—tend in the same direction. Not even this pathetic fact restrained the thoroughness of the excision. But the Book of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 13:23 seq.) will show that it was thorough only for a time.

Benson Commentary

Ezra 10:18-19. Among the sons of the priests there were found, &c. — No wonder the people broke the law, when so many of those who were supposed to understand it best, namely, the priests, yea, some of the sons of the high-priest, set them such a foul example of lust and levity. And they gave their hands — They covenanted or swore by giving their hands, which was the usual ceremony in such cases, to put away their strange wives, and avoid such offences in future. Offered a ram of the flock for their trespass — Hereby confessing their guilt, and the desert of it, humbly suing for pardon, and taking the prescribed way of obtaining it, by bringing the trespass-offering appointed in the law, Leviticus 6:6. All those named to the end of Ezra 10:22, were priests, who, being deep in this guilt, and public persons, imboldened others to go fearlessly into the same sin.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:15-44 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare with the list in Ezra 2.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Ezr 10:18-44. Those That Had Taken Strange Wives.

18. 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.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18–22. 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.

18–44. The List of those who ‘had married strange women’

The record of the names was probably one of the documents officially preserved. The publicity of such a list was in itself a punishment to the offenders and a warning to others.

As in chap. 2, the list falls into the three groups of Priests, Levites, and Israel (or Laity), i.e. 17 Priests, 10 Levites, 86 ‘of Israel’—113 in all.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - Joshua the son of Jozadak is, undoubtedly, the high priest of chs. 3. and 5. Four members of his family had committed the sin (compare Nehemiah 13:28). Ezra 10:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Among the priests there stand first, four names of sons and brethren of the high priest Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel. אחיו, his (Jeshua's) brethren. Judging by Ezra 2:36, these were among the descendants of Jedaiah, a section of the house of the high-priestly family (see rem. on Ezra 2:36), and were therefore distant cousins of the high priest. They gave their hands, i.e., bound themselves by shaking hands, to put away their wives, i.e., to dismiss them, and to sever them from the congregation of Israel, ואשׁמים, "and guilty a ram for their trespass," i.e., condemned to bring a ram as a trespass-offering. ואשׁמים is to be regarded as the continuation of the infinitive clause להוציא. As elsewhere, infinitive clauses are continued without anything further in the verb. finit. (comp. Ewald, 350); so here also does the adjective אשׁמים follow, requiring that להיות should be mentally supplied. איל־צאן, a ram of the flock, is, as an accusative of more exact definition, dependent on אשׁמים. This trespass-offering was imposed upon them according to the principle of the law, Leviticus 5:14, etc., because they had committed a מעל against the Lord, which needed expiation; see on Leviticus 5:14. - In what follows, only the names of the individuals, and a statement of the families they belonged to, are given, without repeating that the same obligations, namely, the dismissal of their strange wives, and the bringing of a trespass-offering, were imposed on them also, this being self-evident from the context. - Among the sons of Immer were three, among the sons of Harim five, among the sons of Pashur six offenders; in all, eighteen priests. By comparing Ezra 2:36-39, we perceive that not one of the orders of priests who returned with Zerubbabel was free from participation in this transgression. Some of the names given, Ezra 10:20-22, reappear in the lists in Nehemiah 8:4 and Nehemiah 10:2-9, and may belong to the same individuals.