Ezra 10

Ezra 10:15

15. — were employed about this matter:] These words will admit of being translated, “stood against this matter;” according to which the sense of the passage is, that the four persons here mentioned opposed the business of reformation on which they were proceeding. Dr. Lightfoot.

Ezra 10:17

17. — the first day of the first month.] Of the ensuing year, three months being spent in the investigation.

Ezra 10:19

19. — they gave their hands &c.] They solemnly engaged to divorce their wives, openly acknowledged their crime, and offered a sacrifice of atonement for it at the temple. Pyle.

Ezra 10:25

25. Moreover of Israel:] That is, of the rest of the people, those who were not Levites. Bp. Patrick. Before CHRIST 458. The names of them who had married strange wives.

Ezra 10:44

44. All these had taken &c.] The most remarkable of those who had committed this offence are here set down. Whether there might be more, whose names are not recorded, is uncertain. Thus this reformation was concluded, without which the priestly line would have been in a short time corrupted and confounded, and the generality of the nation debauched into lewdness and idolatry, to the entire loss of all the merciful ends and designs of the late happy restoration. Pyle.

Ezra continued in the government of Judea till he was succeeded by Nehemiah, B. C. 446; and, by virtue of the commission he had from the king, he reformed the whole state of the Jewish church, according to the law of Moses, in which he was excellently learned, and settled it upon that foundation, on which it afterwards stood till the time of our Saviour. But, after his government ceased, his labour to serve the church of God did not also cease, for he still went on, as a preacher of righteousness, and a skilful scribe of the law of God, to perfect the reformation which he had begun, both in preparing for the people correct editions of the Scriptures, and also in bringing all things in church and state to a conformity with the rules therein contained. This he continued to do as long as he lived, and herein he was thoroughly assisted and supported by the next governour, who, coming to Jerusalem with the same intention, and the same zeal for promoting the honour of God and the welfare of His people in Judah and Jerusalem, as Ezra did, concurred with him heartily in the work, so that Ezra continued still to pursue the same measures by the authority of the new government, which he before did by his own. And by their thus

Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, and Joel, Benaiah.