Ezra 10:7-9 - Exposition

PROCLAMATION MADE , SUMMONING ALL THE JEWS TO JERUSALEM ( Ezra 10:7-9 ). After due deliberation between Ezra, the princes, and the elders (verse 8), it was resolved, as a first step, to summon all Jews—or, rather, all those who had returned from the captivity, whether they were Jews or Israelites—to Jerusalem, in order that the decision come to with respect to the mixed marriages might be communicated to them. The limit of three days was fixed as the latest date at which any one might make his appearance, and absentees were threatened with the heavy penalties of excommunication and forfeiture of all their possessions. Proclamation having been made to this effect "throughout Judah" (verse 7), there was a gathering of all the males of full age to Jerusalem within the prescribed time. The place of meeting was the great court of the temple (verse 9). According to Hecataeus of Abdera (Fr. 14), this was "a stone-walled enclosure, about 500 feet long and 150 feet wide," which might perhaps afford sitting room for 20,000 men. Deducting the aged and infirm, the sick, and those between twelve and twenty years of age, the country Jews would scarcely have reached this number.