A Covenant of Separation and an Ending Without a Celebration

The first person of Ezra’s memoir gives way here to the third person: “when Ezra had prayed”. He prostrates himself in front of the temple, a public place, not a private room. Women and children are named in the crowd, and they are the people whose futures the chapter is about to decide.

Shechaniah is “of the sons of Elam”, and verse 26 lists a Jehiel among the sons of Elam who had married foreign wives, possibly his own father. “There is hope” is miqveh, the word for a gathering pool of water, used for hope as something one can wait for and draw on.

“Put away” translates a verb meaning to send out, not the usual Hebrew terms for divorce. “My lord” is Shechaniah’s address to Ezra. “Those that tremble” picks up the haredim of 9:4. The appeal to the law probably has Deuteronomy 7:3 and 24:1 in view, though how the one applied through the other is not explained.

“Be of good courage, and do it” echoes David’s charge to Solomon about the temple in 1 Chronicles 28:10 and 28:20. The layman puts the matter in the priest’s hands and promises backing, the pledge that a leader in doubt most needs.

The oath comes before any detail is settled; the chief priests swear first. “According to this word” binds them to Shechaniah’s proposal as spoken, which gives the later hearings their legal footing.

Johanan son of Eliashib is linked to the high priest Eliashib of Nehemiah’s day (Nehemiah 3:1, 12:22-23). A high priest Johanan is also named in the Elephantine papyri of 407 BC, which is one reason some scholars date Ezra’s mission after Nehemiah’s. Fasting from both bread and water recalls Moses in Deuteronomy 9:18.

The proclamation goes to “the children of the captivity” only, the returned community. Membership in that community is now the unit of obligation, not residence in Judah.

“Forfeited” is the Hebrew herem, devoted, which in this setting meant confiscation to the temple. Exclusion from the congregation was the heavier sanction for a small community. The powers used are those granted to Ezra in 7:26.

The twentieth of Kislev, the ninth month, falls in December, the heart of the rainy season. “The street of the house of God” is the open square before the temple. The people tremble for two reasons at once, the matter and the downpour, and the Book of Ezra records both without ranking them.

Ezra’s charge is brief. “To increase the trespass of Israel” sets the marriages on top of a debt already acknowledged in the prayer of 9:6-7, rather than treating them as a new and separate offence.

Three commands follow: confess, do his pleasure, separate. The separation is from “the people of the land” generally and from the wives particularly, the order suggesting the marriages were seen as the most concrete form of a wider assimilation.

The congregation answers with one voice, and its answer, “as thou hast said, so must we do”, turns Ezra’s words into their own resolution. Unanimity is claimed at the loudest possible moment.

The objection is practical and reasonable: too many cases, too much rain, too little shelter. “Neither is this a work of one day or two” is a plea for due process as much as for dry clothes.

The plan sends the cases back to the towns, with each man appearing at an appointed time alongside his own city’s elders and judges, who would know the families. The aim is stated as turning away “the fierce wrath”, the language of 2 Chronicles 30:8.

The King James takes these four men as the officials employed on the task. The Hebrew, “stood against this”, is read by most modern translations as opposition. Shabbethai the Levite later helps explain the law in Nehemiah 8:7, so if he opposed the plan, he did not lose his standing.

The court sits ten days after the assembly, on the first of the tenth month. “Separated” means set apart for the task, the same verb used of the separation from the peoples, and “all of them by their names” suggests the judges themselves were registered.

The examinations run from the first of the tenth month to the first of the first month, three months. That is exactly one year after Ezra set out from Babylon on the first of the first month (7:9).

The list begins with the high priest’s own family, the descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak who led the first return. Four names: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. The house that should have set the standard is named first.

“Gave their hands” is the gesture of a pledge, a handshake of agreement. The ram is the guilt offering of Leviticus 5:15, required for a trespass against holy things. Only this first priestly group is said to bring it, though it may be implied for the rest.

Two sons of Immer, the priestly house of 2:37. Hanani shares his name with Nehemiah’s brother, who brings the news from Jerusalem in Nehemiah 1:2, a different man a generation later.

Five sons of Harim, one of them named Elijah. The prophet’s name among the offenders is a reminder that names were given by parents in hope, not earned by their bearers.

Six sons of Pashur, the largest priestly group, matching the size of that family in the first return (2:38). Ishmael, the name of Abraham’s elder son, appears here on a priest; Jozabad occurs again in the next verse among the Levites.

Six Levites. The parenthesis “Kelaiah, (the same is Kelita,)” notes a man known by two names. A Kelita later stands with Ezra helping the people understand the law (Nehemiah 8:7) and seals the covenant (Nehemiah 10:10), which suggests he was restored.

One singer, Eliashib, and three porters, Shallum, Telem and Uri. After four groups of priests and one of Levites, the temple staff are complete, and the list turns to the lay families.

The lay list begins, as the register of chapter 2 did, with Parosh. Seven names, two of them the same name spelled slightly differently, Malchiah and Malchijah, “my king is the LORD”. The repetition may be two cousins given the same name, or a doubled entry.

Six sons of Elam, including a Jehiel. Shechaniah son of Jehiel, who proposed the covenant in verse 2, was also of Elam. If this is his father, the reformer had asked for a measure that would cut through his own household.

Six sons of Zattu. Eliashib appears here as a layman, and a Mattaniah and a Jeremoth repeat names already listed under Elam: the same few names cycled through every family of the period.

Four sons of Bebai. Zabbai is probably the father of Baruch who repaired a section of the wall in Nehemiah 3:20. Jehohanan, “the LORD is gracious”, is the full form of Johanan.

Six sons of Bani. Sheal, a short name perhaps meaning “asked for”, is found only here. Ramoth is also the name of a Levitical city in Gilead, used as a personal name.

Eight sons of Pahath-moab, including Bezaleel, the name of the craftsman who built the tabernacle (Exodus 31:2), and Manasseh, the name of Joseph’s son and of Judah’s worst king. Binnui here is a man, not the family of that name.

The lay family of Harim, distinct from the priestly Harim of verse 21, as the register of chapter 2 also kept them apart (2:32, 2:39). Shimeon is the name of the patriarch Simeon, spelled out in full.

The Harim list runs on without a break. Benjamin, a tribe’s name, is here one man’s name, and Malluch repeats a name from verse 29.

Seven sons of Hashum. Mattenai and Mattathah both come from the Hebrew for “gift”, and Manasseh appears again after verse 30. Seven men of Hashum’s family were involved; the whole clan numbered 223 in the first return (2:19).

A second “sons of Bani” heading is odd after verse 29. Many scholars suspect a copying slip for Bigvai or Binnui, which would give a separate family. Amram, the name of Moses’ father, stands in the list.

Benaiah occurs four times in the offenders’ list (verses 25, 30, 35 and 43). Bedeiah and Chelluh are found nowhere else in the Bible.

Vaniah and Meremoth, and Eliashib for the third time in the list. A priest named Meremoth son of Uriah had weighed the treasure in 8:33; this is presumably a layman of the same name.

Mattaniah, “gift of the LORD”, now for the fourth time, and Mattenai again after verse 33. Jaasau is another name found only here.

“And Bani, and Binnui” may conceal a new heading. Many translations, following the Greek, read “of the sons of Binnui: Shimei”, which would split the long list beginning at verse 34 into two families, as the register of 2:10 and Nehemiah 7:15 know both names.

Shelemiah, “the LORD repays” or “peace of the LORD”, then Nathan, the name of the prophet who rebuked David, and Adaiah, which repeats a name from verse 29.

Machnadebai is the longest and strangest name in the list, of uncertain meaning. Shashai and Sharai sound almost like echoes of each other, the kind of paired short names found in Babylonian documents of the time.

Azareel, “God has helped”, and a second Shelemiah and a second Shemariah within a few verses. Two men of the same name in one family was common enough to need no comment.

Joseph closes this family, the patriarch’s name surviving in the fifth century BC. As the King James divides the headings, twenty-seven men are counted under Bani in verses 34 to 42, by far the largest group.

Seven sons of Nebo, the town of 2:29. Zebina is found only here, and Benaiah appears for the fourth time. As the King James divides it, the whole list names 113 men: 17 priests, 10 temple staff and 86 laymen.

The Hebrew of this last verse is difficult, and translations differ widely on its second half. The Greek of 1 Esdras 9:36 says they put the wives away with their children. The Book of Ezra ends with no celebration, no summary and no word from God.