The Pulpit Commentary — Ezra — Section 148

penitential prayer, and might be counted on ally, "they made to p88!a.voice" (wap;,v,y- to lend it additional force with Almighty o:av t/>wv71v.-LXX.). They sent criers to make the matter known. To all the, chil- God. Compare the private and personal dren of the captivity. I. e. to all those who, fo.ste of David (2 Sam. xii 16), .Ahab (1 havin~ returned from the captivity, were Kings xxi. 27), Daniel (Dan. ix. 3), and now m the land. The expression is a Nehemiah (Neh. i. 4). favourite one with Ezra (see eh. ii. 1 ; iv. 1 ; vi. 16, 19; viii. 35, &c.). Ver. 6.-The chamber of J'ohanan. On Ver. 8.-Within three days. The limits the temple chambers see comme11;~ on eh. of Jud::ea at this time appear to have been viii 29. J ohanan appears by N eh. xn. 22, 23, Bethel on the north, Beersheba on the south, compared with vera. 10-11, to have been Jericho on the east, and the Mediterranean really the grandson of Eli~hib, who, ~ ~gh upon the west. As the frontier was nowhere priest, would have the nght of ass1gmng much more than forty miles from Jerusalem, him a chamber in the temple (compare three days from the day that they heard the Neh. xiii. 4, 6). I did eat no bread nor proclamation would be sufficient time to drink water. Strict fasts of this kind had allow all the able-bodied men to reach the been observed by Moses twice (Exod._ ~v. ca.pitaL Forfeited. Literally, "devoted," 28, and Deut. ix. 18), and by the NmeVItes i. e. confiscated to the temple treasury. (Jonah iii. 7), hut they were very uncornmo~. Sepe.re.ted from the congregation.. I. e. Usually it was considered enough to abstam excommunicated. from eating (1 Sam. i. 7; xx. 34; 2 Sam. Ver. 9.-All the men of J'udah and Ben- iii. 35). Sometimes the person wh? fasted jamin gathered themselves together unto merely abstained from '' meat and wine, and J'erusalem. This is of course to be under- pleasant bread" (Dan. x. 3). Ezra's great stood with certain necessary or natural excep- earnestness appears in the severity of his tions as of the sick, the aged and infirm, fast, which (it is to be remember~d) was not and the youths under full age. Still it would for his own sins, but for those of hIS brethren. be a vast gathering, doubling probably for PROCLAMATION MADE, SUMMONING ALL the time the population of the city. It was THE JEWS TO JERUSALEM (vers. 7 - 9). the ninth month. The month Chisleu, cor- After due deliberation between Ezra, the responding nearly to our December. All the princes, and the elders (ver. 8), it was people eat in the street of the honse of God. The word translated "street" means any re.solved, as a first step, to summon all Jews broad open space, and is probably used here -or, rather, all those who had returned from to designate the great court of the temple the captivity, whether they wero Jews or (Patrick). By "all the people" we must Israelites-to Jerusalem, in order that the understand as many as the court would con- decision come to with respect to the mixed veniently bold. If the court had the ~en- sions given it by Hecatreus of Abdera, 1t may marriages might be communicated to them. have accommodated the whole body of the The limit of three days was fixed as the country Jews. The great rain. December latest date at which any one might make is a rainy month in Palestine ; and the his appearance, and absentees were threat- incidental mention of "the great rain" is ened with the heavy penalties of excom- one of those small touches wbich stamp tho writer as an eyewitness. munication and forfeiture of all their pos- ~essions. Proclamation having been made ADDRESS OF EZRA, A...'ID CONSENT OF THE to this effect "throughout Judah" (ver. 7), PEOPLE TO PUT AWAY THE STRA.,.'IGE WIVES there was a gathering of all the males of (vers. 10 - 14). Hitherto Ezra seems to full age to Jerusalem within the prescribed have allowed the leading part in the matter time. The place of meeting was the great to be taken by the civil authorities, whom court of the temple (ver. 9). .According to be bad found established in Jerusalem on his Hecatreus of Abdera (Fr. 14), this was "a arrival (eh. ix. 1-8). Now he came forward stone-walled enclosure, about 500 feet long boldly, denouncing the sin committed, and as and 150 feet wide," which might perhaps supreme governor commanding the repudia- afford sitting room for 20,000 men. Deduct- tion of the strange wives. The assembled ing the aged and infirm, the sick, and those multitude consented, but urged that tbo between twelve and twenty years of age, the matter required time; that the season Wa.9 country Jews would scarcely have reached unsuitable for a prolonged stay of the whole this number. body of country Jews at Jerusalem, and that Ver. 7.-The:, made proclamation. Liter- the business would be most conveniently  154 THE BOOK OF EZRA. fCH. X. 1-44, carried through by a standing commission produce it we must read ;, for -:i, and consisting of the chief authorities of the city hadddbdr for laddc!M1· liaz""ze/1,, As the of Jerusalem, who should take the case of text stRnds, it is unintelligible. e11ch country town separately, and, in con- Ol'POSITION OF JONATHAN AND OTHEI\S ,iunction with the elders and judges of each (ver. 16). It was natural the.t some oppo- to1m, investigate the alleged mixed mar- sition should manifest itself when so trench- riages of each locality, and adjudicate upon ant a measure was announced as that which them. By this arrangement the bulk of the Ezra had declared to be necessary. '.l.'o country Jews would be allowed at once to compel men to divorce their wives was tn return home ; and the case of each locality touch many in the tenderest place. Nor wus being taken separately, only a small number it difficult to bring forward very plausibl~ would at any given time be suffering the arguments to show that the marriages-or inconvenience of a compulsory absence from at any rate some of them-were allowable. their residences, and the expense of a stay Joseph had manied an Egyptian (Gen. xii. of some duration in the capital The pro- 45), Moses a lliidianite (Exod. ii. 21). True, posal WM reasorntble, and it appears to have these mll.rriages had taken place before the approved itself to Ezra and his advisers, and law was given; but subsequently, also, Boaz to have been at once adopted. • had married Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth iv. Ver. 10.-Ezra the priest stood up. Now 13) ; David had taken to wife Maacah, a that the time had come for action, Ezra was Geshurite (2 Sam. iii. 3); and Solomon had uot 1,anting to his duties. The chiefauthority without blamo married the daughter of a had been put into his hands by the Persian Pharaoh (1 Kings iii. 1). These examples king (eh. vii 25, 26), and he was bonnd to might be pleaded in proof that the Law exercise it. Accordingly, the grc.at bulk of the nation being assembled in obedience to admitted of exceptions, and individuals -che proclamation, Ezra came forward in might argue that their cases were of an person, and declared that the" strange wives" exceptional character. Again, in some in- must be put away. Ye have taken strange stances the foreign wives may have become wives. Literally, "have caused to dwell," proselytes, and the children may have been i. e. have made them come and live with circumcised, and so accepted into the con- you in the holy land. Ver. 11.-Make confession.. This is un- gregation; which would give them a claim doubtedly the true meaning of fnu thodah, to remain, which would extend in some in this place, and not "give praise" (oar, degree to the mothers. We therefore cannot a,v,cr,v ), e.s the LXX. render. Sepe.rate your- be surprised that an opposition was made. selves from the people of the land. The Rather, it is remarkable that it was so slight, marriages naturally led on to familiar inter- course with the relatives and friends of the only extending (so far as appears) to four women, and so tended to break down the persons, and so easily quelled. barrier between Jew and Gentile which it Ver. 15.-0nly Jonathan . .. and J'aha- had been the special object of the Mosaic ziah ... were employed about this matter. lepslation to erect. If this were the true meaning of the passage Yer. 13.-We a.re ma.ny that have trans- it would contradict the next verse, by which gressed. The marginal rendering, "we have it appears that Ezra himself, together with greatly offended in this thing," is nearer to several "chiefs of the fathers "-probably the original No doubt, however, the great- identical with the "rulers and elders" of ness of the offence consisted partly in the ver. 14-took the matter in hand, and were large number that had offended. occupied with it for three months. 'fhe Ver. 14.-Let now our rulers of the con- true meaning of the clause, however, is gregation st&D.d. Let Ezra, together with almost certainly that which was assumed in the princes and the elders at J eTUBalem (ver. the preceding paragraph: " Only Jonathan 8), form a standing body to act with the and Jahaziah stood up against this matter," elders and judges of the provincial towns in or "opposed" it (see 1 Chron. xxi. 1 ; Dan. this matter, and let the case of each town be viii 25 ; xi. 14, where the same expression taken separately, and the inhabitants of each has the sense of "oppose, resist"). Me- attend at Jerusalem in their turn. Until shullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped the fierce wrath of our God for this matter them. The "Meshullam" intended is Jmr- be turned from us. This is probably the haps the person of the name menticne in true meaning of the writer, but it is not to ver. 29 as having married an idolatrous be obtained from the ordinary text. To wife. The others seem not to have had any ()H. :X, 1-44.J THE BOOK OF EZRA 155