[:en]SCRIPTURE: EZRA 10
Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them. “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women adding to Israel’s guilt. Now make confessions to the Lord, the God of your fathers and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives” (Ezra 10:10-11)
THE PEOPLE’S CONFESSION OF SIN (vs. 1-17)
While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites – men, women and children – gathered around him. They openly wept bitterly and confessed that they had married heathen wives and disobeyed the Law of the Lord. They offered to make a covenant with God and to put away their unclean wives.
So, a proclamation was made throughout the land to gather in Jerusalem and settle this important matter. Whoever was guilty and did not come will forfeit his place in the land. The people agreed to purge their sins by dealing with all men who had married foreign women. The four men who stood up against it were: Jonathan, Jahzeiah, Meshullam and Shabbethai. It took them 4 months to investigate the case.
THOSE GUILTY OF INTERMARRIAGE (vs. 18-44)
There were 17 people, 10 Levites and 87 other men who were found guilty of marrying heathen wives. Those heathen children were also exposed and expelled. However, the Jewish husband had to make provisions for the welfare of those expelled people.
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