Ezra 10:1

ISRAEL'S PUTTING AWAY OF THEIR FOREIGN WIVES AND CHILDREN;

THEY ACCEPT SHECHANIAH'S PROPOSAL

"Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and bowing himself down before the house of God, there was gathered together unto him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children, for the people wept very sore. 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 married foreign women of the peoples of the land: yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing. 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. Arise; for the matter belongeth unto thee, and we are with thee: be of good courage, and do it."

Two things in this paragraph are disputed: (1) Shechaniah is identified by Hamrick[1] as the son of the violator (Jehiel) mentioned in Ezra 10:26, but Williamson denied the certainty of that identification, writing that, "Jehiel is a common enough name to preclude certainty of identity, even with a single extended family."[2] Keil wrote that, "This Shechaniah is a different person from the descendant of Zattu (Ezra 8:5), nor is Jehiel identical with the individual of that name mentioned in Ezra 10:26."[3]

(2) "Let us make a covenant ... according to the counsel of my lord" (Ezra 10:3). The words `my lord' are given in the ASV margin as `my Lord'. Some scholars consider them as a reference to Ezra; others view them as a reference to God. Williamson's comment is that, "Shechaniah here refers to `the advice of my lord,' Ezra";[4] and, based upon this, there is a postulation that Ezra had already discussed the matter previously with Shechaniah. However, there is absolutely nothing in the text which supports a proposition like that. We believe that the Douay Version properly translates this verse, "Let us make a covenant ... according to the will of the Lord, and of them that fear the commandment of the Lord our God." Keil also agreed that in this passage the Hebrew text has, "According to the counsel of the Lord," and that "there is no critical authority for changing it."[5] It appears that translators have been too much influenced by the LXX.

"And let it be done according to the law" (Ezra 10:3). This was part of Shechaniah's proposal to put away the foreign wives and their children. Deuteronomy 24:1 gave instructions for the divorcing of a wife; but, "According to the teaching of the Rabbis, divorce was allowed for every cause (Matthew 19:3)."[6] Thus, there would have been no legal impediment to the adoption of Shechaniah's proposal, a proposal which on that occasion was received by the vast majority of the people present. Some phases of the implementation of this drastic remedy are not mentioned in the text.

Ezra, however, very wisely moved at once to require all the people to swear that they would accept and execute this requirement to put away their foreign wives and their children.