Chapters nine and ten are an account of the purification of the returned captives from the defilement of the foreign wives. God had charged the children of Israel, when they entered into the good land, not to have intermarriage with the peoples of the land. At Ezra’s time, not only the common people but even the priests and the Levites had foreign wives.
This purification was initiated by the officials of the returned captives (9:1-2). They accused the people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites of not separating themselves from the peoples of the lands but taking the daughters of the nations for themselves and for their sons, thus mingling the holy seed with the peoples of abominations. They accused the leaders and the rulers of having been foremost in this unfaithfulness to God.
Verses 3 through 15 describe Ezra’s reaction.
Ezra tore his garment and pulled out hair from his head and his beard and sat down appalled with the gathering of those who trembled at the words of the God of Israel (vv. 3-4). Those who trembled at the words of God were the faithful ones.
Ezra then made a thorough confession of the iniquities of the children of Israel from their forefathers’ time to their time, saying that their iniquities issued in the delivery of their kings and their priests into the hand of the kings of the lands and into captivity and shamefacedness (vv. 5-7).
Ezra thanked God for leaving them a remnant to escape and for giving them a peg in His holy place by extending His lovingkindness to them in the sight of the kings of Persia to give them a reviving, to raise up the house of their God, and to give them a wall and to repair its ruins in Judah and Jerusalem (vv. 8-9).
Ezra continued by confessing their being defiled with the uncleanness and abominations of the Canaanites in seeking their peace and prosperity, thus losing the right to enjoy the good of the promised land and to leave it for an inheritance to their children forever (vv. 10-15). Ezra was confessing that by taking foreign wives the people were despising and neglecting their right to enjoy the good land and as a result they were given by God into captivity.
In 10:1-5 we have the congregation’s reaction.
The people reacted by weeping very bitterly for their unfaithfulness against their God by marrying foreign women from the peoples of the land (vv. 1-2).
They also made a covenant with their God to put away all their foreign wives and those born of them, according to the counsel of Ezra and of those who trembled at the commandment of their God (v. 3).
The people encouraged Ezra to be strong and bear his responsibility. Then they swore that they would do according to his word (vv. 4-5).
Ezra 10:6-44 is a record of the final decision. A proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of Israel to gather in Jerusalem within three days (vv. 6-9). Next, the decision was made to separate themselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women (vv. 10-14, 16-17). However, a few of the people stood up against the decision, supported by one Levite (v. 15). Finally, there was a list of all the men who had married foreign women (vv. 18-44).
We have pointed out that Ezra emphasizes the matter of God’s hand. It was by His hand that God gave the children of Israel into captivity. It was also by His hand that God brought the children of Israel back from their captivity to the land of their forefathers. Here we see that the same God did two different things: He gave His people to their enemy as captives and He delivered them from captivity and brought them back to their fatherland. Ezra, a wise man, was clear about this.
Ezra realized that the first return was not perfect, not complete. He realized that there was the need for someone who was skilled in the law of God to help the people to know God not merely in a general way but according to what God had spoken. Ezra had such a capacity, so he volunteered himself to go to the king and to request a decree from the king permitting the Jews to do everything freely.
Chapter one of Ezra tells us that God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation concerning the rebuilding of the house of God (vv. 1-2) and that He also stirred up the spirit of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites to go up to build the house of God in Jerusalem (v. 5). God was hiding Himself, but at the expiration of the seventy years, He came in to stir up the spirit of Cyrus. Cyrus must have been happy that the great empire of Babylon was in his hand, and regarding the Jews he might have wanted to do something that was opposite to what the Babylonians had done. Humanly speaking, Cyrus took the initiative to make the decree. Actually, this was initiated by God in a hidden way. Therefore, the first return from Babylon to Jerusalem was initiated by God.
The second return was initiated by Ezra, a priest and a scribe skilled in the Word of God. Ezra came to the king and appealed to him to grant his request (7:6). From this we see that sometimes God personally stirs us up in our spirit to do something for Him. However, often God is quiet, realizing that it is better that we do something because we have the capacity, as Ezra had. In this kind of situation, God is responsible for the things we do. Whether the things are stirred up by Him or stirred up by us, He will be in them, stretching out His hand to do everything to help us.