Ezra 10:9-11

Amplified Bible

⁹So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the twentieth [day] of the ninth month, and all the people sat in the open square in front of the house of God, trembling because of [the seriousness of] this matter and because of the heavy rain. ¹⁰Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful [to God] and have married foreign (pagan) women, adding to the guilt of Israel. ¹¹So now, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will. ^[a]Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from [your] foreign wives.”

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Footnotes

Ezra 10:11 The severity of Ezra’s policy is justified considering Israel’s tragic experiences resulting from marriages to pagan women. The consequent idolatry, first of King Solomon, and then of the whole nation, was fatal. God’s wrath had been so great that He not only took the kingship from Solomon, but eventually turned the Israelites over to their enemies and left the promised land desolate, while the people mourned their fate as captives in a pagan country. Ezra, to whom the keeping of God’s law was of constant concern, had been born in captivity among exiles who grieved for the country, peace and prosperity which God had once given them. Leading the exiles to give up their foreign wives and children was the only way to avoid God’s wrath.