‘And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem,'
Ezra having retired to pray, the leaders of Israel made a proclamation throughout Jerusalem and Judea that all the returnees from exile should gather at Jerusalem. They would be living among the peoples of the land, but these were not invited. The purpose was in order to determine who had married idolatrous foreign wives.
‘And that whoever did not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance would be forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation of the captivity.'
And the warning given was that any who failed to turn up within three days would lose all their possessions, whilst they themselves would cease to be members of the assembly of the returnees. And this would be because they had failed to heed the counsel of the princes and the elders, that is, the local leadership. But the authority to make such a demand must have come from Ezra as the king's appointed representative. Confiscation of goods and banishment were two of the punishments which Ezra was authorised to exact in Artaxerxes' letter (Ezra 7:26).
‘Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month, and all the people sat in the broad place before the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.'
The demand was responded to. All the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together in Jerusalem within the allotted time period, and this was in the ninth month on the twentieth day of the month (around December). But it was sheeting down with rain, and all the people sat in the rain in a broad place before the house of God. And they were trembling, both because of the seriousness of the matter in hand, possibly remembering the Law that had been read out to them two months earlier at the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:1), and also because of the dreadful rain. We have here the evidence of an eyewitness. The rain was not something that was likely to be invented.
‘And Ezra the priest stood up, and said to them, “You have been unfaithful, and have married foreign women, to increase the guilt of Israel.”
Then Ezra stood up before the large assembled gathering and charged them with being unfaithful to God by marrying idolatrous foreign women who would lead them astray after their gods, adding to the guilt of their forefathers who had done similar things and had in that way become guilty before God. Israel had been guilty enough before the Exile. They were now adding to that guilt. They were behaving like their forefathers, and therefore calling on God to punish them in the same way as He had punished their forefathers. The point all the way through is not a racist one but a religious one. These women would lead them astray after false gods, and cause them to be unfaithful to God.
‘To increase the guilt of Israel.' The picture is of a combined guilt which had built up through the centuries as the people of Israel became more and more involved with false gods. It had grown until it had reached the point where God had had to deal with it by the destruction of the Temple, and the exiling of the cream of the people. But now He had given them a new start. He had brought His remnant back from exile as those who were faithful to the worship of YHWH. The burden of guilt had been set aside. But if they now acted as their forefathers had done they would be adding to that burden of guilt, and would be even more guilty than their forefathers. They would be bringing the whole past guilt of Israel upon themselves. (We can compare how the same had been true of the Amorites. Their collective guilt had grown and grown until at length God had had to deal with it by sending Israel in to exterminate them or drive them out of God's inheritance. It did not happen in Abraham's time because at that time ‘the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full' (Genesis 15:16)).
“Now therefore make confession to YHWH, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure, and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign women.”
So now what they had to do was come to YHWH, the God of their fathers, and admit their sins, thereby glorifying Him. The words translated ‘make confession' mean ‘give praise to'. We can compare how Joshua called on Achan to confess by telling him to ‘give praise to YHWH' by admitting what he had done. They then had to do what He wanted them to do, and separate themselves from the peoples of the land and from foreign women. The aim was to keep them from idolatry, and from degraded activities which would be displeasing to God. That this was not racist comes out in that many of ‘the peoples of the land' were themselves Israelites, the ‘poor of the land' who had been left behind when the cream were exiled (Jeremiah 39:10). And there would have been many of them. But because of their involvement in Canaanite religion they were now equally seen as Canaanites. Therefore they equally had to be avoided. We must in this regard remember that every aspect of life in those days was involved with religion. It was almost impossible to associate with such people without becoming involved in their religion. And that was why they had to separate from them.
As we have noted before an exception was made for those who fully and truly followed YHWH and had separated themselves from the filthiness of the land, that is from idolatry and its consequences (Ezra 6:21). So not all were excluded. Those who were excluded were excluded because of their adherence to the old religion of the land.
‘Then all the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, “As you have said concerning us, so must we do.”
The whole gathering then answered in a loud voice, “As you have said concerning us, so must we do.” The reply is similar to that of Israel in Exodus 19:8; Exodus 24:3, and may be patterned on it, possibly unconsciously, as they saw Ezra as bringing to them the words of YHWH. The loud voice indicates their emotion and the fullness of their intention. It was a full acceptance of joint guilt. They had been made to recognise the great danger that they had placed the new Israel in, the danger of an even worse judgment than before. And they had done this by ignoring the evil in their midst. For they all knew that it had been happening, and they all knew what they should have done something about it before this.
Clearly there had been much discussion of the matter before this. They all knew why they had been summoned to Jerusalem. And they had had three days in which to consider their position and their response. Thus it was not just an emotional response to a direct appeal (although it was that as well) but a response from the heart in recognition of their failure.
“But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand outside, nor is this a work of one day or two, for we have greatly transgressed in this matter.”
These words were clearly addressed to Ezra by their leaders. They had come together to Ezra, and now they pointed out that the full implementing of what the crowds had said would not be quite so easy. Nor was it something that could be worked out there and then, for the inclement weather made it impossible for the whole crowd to stand waiting in the rain. Furthermore it was something which had to be looked into in depth. It was not merely the work of one or two days, because of the depth to which Israel had sunk in the matter, and they acknowledged the seriousness of the situation. They had greatly transgressed and disobeyed the Law of God.
“Let our princes now be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the their judges, until the fierce wrath of our God be turned from us, until this matter be despatched.”
So they proposed that their leaders, the heads of father's houses, be appointed on behalf of the whole assembly, in order to look into the matter. Then those who had married idolatrous foreign wives should come before the council, along with the elders of their city and their judges. These would presumably themselves look into the matter with regard to individuals in their area before coming so as to distinguish between foreign women who had become true Israelites and worshippers of YHWH, and those who had continued in their idolatry. All would know who had married whom, but what would have to be investigated was their subsequent way of life. Thus it was necessary was for them to ensure that those who were discovered to have been unfaithful to YHWH came at an appointed time, until the whole matter was sorted out, thereby ensuring that the great wrath of God be turned from them, making them again acceptable before Him. Sin had to be rooted out.
‘Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.'
There were, however, as always, a few who were not in agreement with the plan. Jonathan and Jahzeiah who stood up against it were clearly important men (their patronyms are given and they are distinguished from the other two), and they were joined in their opposition by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite. It is probable that what they did not agree with was the delay, not the agreement to get rid of foreign wives, and that in their enthusiasm they wanted the matter resolved immediately, possibly fearful of the impending wrath of God. If that is so the verse is intending to bring out the urgency felt about the matter. Others, however, see it as indicating that they disagreed with the whole idea of getting rid of idolatrous foreign wives, the idea being that they were speaking on behalf of their kinsmen who had taken such foreign wives. The aim would then be to bring out that Israel rejected the opinions of those who wanted compromise.
Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite are mentioned again after the arrival of Nehemiah in Nehemiah 8:4; Nehemiah 8:7, as assisting Ezra with the reading of the Law..
‘And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of fathers' houses, after their fathers' houses, and all of them by their names, were set apart; and they sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.'
The returnees did what had been suggested and agreed to. The body was set up which would judge those who were brought before them, and it was made up of Ezra the priest, together with certain heads of father's houses. They were all set apart by name. And on the first day of the tenth month they commenced looking into the matter. Thus it had taken five months to get to this point, but it had not of course been five months of little other activity. Ezra and his returnees would have had to deal with the problem of settling in. And as Ezra did not want to behave like an autocratic king, he wanted to take the people with him. And he could only do that by expounding the Law until it seized hold of the people's consciences.
‘And they made an end with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.'
It then took a further three months for them to complete their caseload, so that by the first day of the first month, New Year's Day, they had dealt with all the cases of men who had married adulterous foreign women. What they were investigating was who needed to be singled out whose idolatrous foreign wives had to be put away. Some foreign wives, who were faithful to YHWH would not be sent away, only those who were involved in idolatry. Such women did not belong to the returnees, for the returnees had come in order to establish the pure worship of God. Thus even from the Persian point of view it was very necessary, for the whole point of the return was that the pure worship of YHWH be set up. And that was what Ezra and the other leaders were now achieving. It therefore fits well into the idea of a report made to his Persian sponsor, Artaxerxes.