---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Ezra 10:1. The people wept very sore. — They were deeply affected at the thought of God"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/ezra/10"
---

Verse [Ezra 10:1](../../../kjv/ezra/10/1). ***The people wept very sore.*** — They were deeply affected at the thought of God's displeasure, which they justly feared was about to light upon them, because of their transgressions.

Verse [Ezra 10:2](../../../kjv/ezra/10/2). ***Shechaniah the son of Jehiel*** — He speaks here in the name of the people, not acknowledging *himself* culpable, for he is not in the following list. It is in the same form of speech with that in James, [James 3:9](../../../kjv/james/3/9). *With the tongue curse we men*. He seems to have been a *chief man* among the people; and Ezra, at present, stood in need of his influence and support.
***Yet now there is hope in Israel*** — מקוה *mikveh, expectation*, of pardon; for the people were convinced of the evil, and were *deeply* *penitent*: hence it is said, [Ezra 10:1](../../../kjv/ezra/10/1), that *they wept sore*.

Verse [Ezra 10:3](../../../kjv/ezra/10/3). ***Let us make a covenant*** — נכרת ברית *nichrath berith, let* *us cut* or *divide the covenant sacrifice*. [Genesis 15:10](../../../kjv/genesis/15/10).

Verse [Ezra 10:4](../../../kjv/ezra/10/4). ***Arise; for*****this*****matter*****belongeth unto thee**] By the decree of Artaxerxes, he was authorized to do everything that the law of God required: see [Ezra 7:23-28](../../../kjv/ezra/7/23-28). And all officers were commanded to be aiding and assisting; hence Shechaniah says, *We* *are with you*.

Verse [Ezra 10:5](../../../kjv/ezra/10/5). ***And they sware.*** — The thing was evidently contrary to the law of God; and now he bound them by an *oath* to rectify the abuse.

Verse [Ezra 10:6](../../../kjv/ezra/10/6). ***Johanan the son of Eliashib*** — Eliashib was high priest, and was succeeded in that office by his son Joiada, [Nehemiah 12:10](../../../kjv/nehemiah/12/10). Probably *Johanan* here is the same as *Jonathan* in Nehemiah, who was the son of *Joiada*, and grandson of *Eliashib*. Some suppose that *Johanan* and *Joiada* were two names for the same person.

Verse [Ezra 10:8](../../../kjv/ezra/10/8). ***All his substance should be forfeited*** — To *the use of* *the temple*. So the *Septuagint* understood the place: Αναθεματισθησεται πασα ἡ ὑπαρξις αυτου, "All his substance shall be devoted to a holy use."
***Himself separated*** — *Excommunicated* from the Church of God, and *exiled* from Israel.

Verse [Ezra 10:9](../../../kjv/ezra/10/9). ***Ninth month*** — Answering to a part of our *December*.
***Trembling because of - the great rain.*** — Απο του χειμωνος, *Because* *of the winter, Septuagint*; it was now *December*, the coldest and most rainy part of the year in Palestine.

Verse 11. ***Make confession*** — Acknowledge your sins before God, with deep compunction of heart, and the fullest resolution to forsake them.

Verse 12. ***As thou hast said, so must we do.*** — They all resolved to do what Ezra then commanded, they did put away their wives, even those by whom they had children; [Ezra 10:44](../../../kjv/ezra/10/44): this was a great hardship on the *women* and *children*. Though by the Jewish laws such marriages were *null* and *void*, yet as the *women* they had taken did not know these laws, their case was deplorable. However, we may take it for granted that each of them received a portion according to the circumstances of their husbands, and that they and their children were not turned away desolate, but had such a provision as their necessities required. *Humanity* must have dictated this, and no law of God is contrary to humanity. After all, there is some room to doubt whether they did put them *finally* away, for several years after Nehemiah found Jews that had married wives of *Ashdod, Ammon*, and *Moab*; [Nehemiah 13:23](../../../kjv/nehemiah/13/23). And if these were not the same women, we find that the same offense was continued.

Verse 17. ***The first day of the first month*** — So they were *three* *whole months* in examining into this affair, and making those *separations* which the law required.

Verse 19. ***They gave their hands*** — They bound themselves in the most solemn manner to do as the rest of the delinquents had done; and they made all acknowledgment of their iniquity to God by offering each a *ram* for a trespass-offering.

Verse [Ezra 10:25](../../../kjv/ezra/10/25). ***Moreover of Israel*** — That is, as Calmet observes, *simple Israelites*, to distinguish them from the *priests,* *Levites*, and *singers, mentioned* in [Ezra 10:18](../../../kjv/ezra/10/18); [Ezra 10:23](../../../kjv/ezra/10/23); [Ezra 10:24](../../../kjv/ezra/10/24).

Verse [Ezra 10:44](../../../kjv/ezra/10/44). **Some*****of them had wives by whom they had children.*** — This observation was probably intended to show that only a *few* of them had children; but it shows also how rigorously the law was put in execution.
According to a passage in *Justin Martyr's* dialogue with *Trypho*, a Jew, Ezra offered a paschal lamb on this occasion, and addressed the people thus: "And Ezra said to the people, This passover is our Saviour and our Refuge; and if ye will be persuaded of it, and let it enter into your hearts, that we are to humble ourselves to him in a sign, and afterwards shall believe in him, this place shall not be destroyed for ever, saith the Lord of Hosts: but if ye will not believe in him, nor hearken to his preaching, ye shall be a laughing-stock to the Gentiles." - *Dial. cum Tryphone*, sec. 72.
This passage, *Justin* says, the Jews, through their enmity to Christ, blotted out of the book of Ezra. He charges them with cancelling several other places through the same spirit of enmity and opposition.
In the *Hebrew text* this and the following book make but one, though sometimes Nehemiah is distinguished as the *second book of* *Esdras*. In the Masoretic enumeration of sections, &c., both books are conjoined. This may be seen at the end of *Nehemiah*. I can add nothing of importance to the character of Ezra, which has already been given so much in detail in the *introduction* to this book.
*Corrected, March, 1828*. - A. CLARKE.

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