Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Ezra commands that the pagan wives be dismissed; officials are designated to carry out this command; those who had married pagan wives are listed.
Vulgate Text: 1 Esdrae 10:1-44
1. So then, while Ezra was praying and beseeching, and weeping, and lying before the temple of God, a very great assembly of men, and women, and children from Israel gathered around him, and the people wept with great weeping. 2. And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra: We have transgressed against our God, and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land: and now, if there is repentance in Israel for this, 3. let us make a covenant with the Lord our God, to put away all the wives and those who have been born from them, according to the will of the Lord, and of those who fear the commandment of the Lord our God: let it be done according to the law. 4. Arise, for it is your task to decree, and we will be with you: be strong, and act. 5. Then Ezra arose and made the chief priests and the Levites, and all Israel, swear that they would do according to this word, and they swore. 6. And Ezra arose from before the house of God, and went to the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib, and he entered there, and ate no bread and drank no water: for he mourned the transgression of those who had come from captivity; 7. and a proclamation was sent throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather in Jerusalem: 8. and whoever did not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance would be forfeited, and he himself would be cast out from the assembly of the captivity. 9. Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered together in Jerusalem within three days, that is, in the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month: and all the people sat in the square before the house of God, trembling because of this sin and because of the rain. 10. And Ezra the priest arose and said to them: You have transgressed and have married foreign women, adding to the sin of Israel. 11. Now therefore make confession to the Lord God of your fathers, and do His will, and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign wives. 12. And the whole assembly answered and said with a loud voice: According to your word to us, so let it be done. 13. But the people are many, and it is the rainy season, and we cannot stand outside, and this is not a matter of one day or two (for we have sinned greatly in this matter), 14. let princes be appointed over the whole assembly: and let all in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of each city, and the judges thereof, until the wrath of our God is turned from us because of this sin. 15. So Jonathan the son of Asahel, and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah, stood over this matter, and Meshullam, and Shabbethai the Levite helped them: 16. and the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, and the heads of families, went into the houses of their fathers, each by name, and they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. 17. And they finished with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month. 18. And there were found among the sons of the priests who had married foreign women: Of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren, Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19. And they gave their hands to put away their wives, and for their offense they offered a ram from the flock. 20. And of the sons of Immer, Hanani and Zebadiah. 21. And of the sons of Harim, Maaseiah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah. 22. And of the sons of Pashhur, Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah. 23. And of the sons of the Levites, Jozabad and Shimei, and Kelaiah (the same is Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. 24. And of the singers, Eliashib. And of the gatekeepers, Shallum, and Telem, and Uri. 25. And of Israel, of the sons of Parosh, Ramiah, and Izziah, and Malchijah, and Mijamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah. 26. And of the sons of Elam, Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Elijah. 27. And of the sons of Zattu, Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and Zabad, and Aziza. 28. And of the sons of Bebai, Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai. 29. And of the sons of Bani, Meshullam, and Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, and Ramoth. 30. And of the sons of Pahath-moab, Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, and Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh. 31. And of the sons of Harim, Eliezer, Jeshua, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Simeon, 32. Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah. 33. And of the sons of Hashum, Mattenai, Mattathah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei. 34. Of the sons of Bani, Maadai, Amram, and Uel, 35. Benaiah, and Bedeiah, Cheluhi, 36. Vaniah, Meremoth, and Eliashib, 37. Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu, 38. and Bani, and Binnui, Shimei, 39. and Shelemiah, and Nathan, and Adaiah, 40. and Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, 41. Azarel, and Shelemiah, Shemariah, 42. Shallum, Amariah, Joseph. 43. Of the sons of Nebo, Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, and Joel, and Benaiah. 44. All these had married foreign wives; and some of them had wives who had borne children.
Verse 1: While Ezra Was Praying and Weeping
1. So then, while Ezra was praying and imploring (God's mercy), and weeping, and lying before the temple. — Ezra did this to move the people to repentance for the inveterate abuse of marrying foreign women, by his prayer and weeping; for he himself confesses and weeps here not for his own sin, but for the people's, and takes their person and sin upon himself (just as Christ did, of whom Ezra here is a type), and therefore he undertook public prayer, prostrate on the ground with groans and tears, lying before the temple, as though counting himself unworthy to enter the temple and pray there; and praying and weeping before the temple, as the Septuagint has it, so that he might be heard by all the people gathered around.
Verse 2: If There Is Repentance in Israel
2. And now, if there is repentance in Israel for this. — The Hebrew and Septuagint read: If there is hope, namely of appeasing God through repentance. For "repentance" is sorrow for sins with the hope of obtaining pardon. He who has no hope of pardon does not repent but despairs like Judas. Therefore repentance includes the hope of the remission of sin.
Verse 3: Let Us Make a Covenant with the Lord
3. Let us make a covenant with the Lord our God, to put away all the (foreign) wives, and those born from them (lest the sight and love of the children move us to recall their foreign mothers. But since these are our sons, it would be impious and inhuman to reject them completely: therefore let us put them away not entirely and absolutely, but) according to the will of the Lord, and the command of those who fear the Lord — that is, let us carry out the manner of dismissal which the wise and God-fearing men shall prescribe for us.
Verse 5: And They Swore
5. And they swore — that they would absolutely and entirely dismiss their foreign wives; but that they would send away the children born from them not absolutely, but according to the counsel of Ezra and the wise God-fearing men. And the wise men prescribed this manner: that they should send their children away from themselves and their homes to schools and training institutions established and to be established for this purpose, so that they might be instructed in them by prudent men in the true faith, fear, and worship of God, and in good morals. So Cajetan.
Great was this resolution of the Jews, a truly earnest repentance, and a most difficult oath. For they swear that they will put away their wives, to whom they had been bound with great ardor for so many years, and whom they loved as their own flesh, in order to satisfy the will and law of God; that they would do the same with their children, whom they regarded as their own limbs, indeed as living images of themselves, and as their other selves, inasmuch as they would survive in them after death and continue to live in the memory of men — they would put them away and, as it were, cut off the hope of posterity, as if to say: We prefer to please God rather than our wives and children; we prefer the grace of God to that of our wives. For we love God above all that is lovable: therefore, to comply with His love, His religion, and His law, we will renounce those who are dear to us from God, and, as it were, sever our own members from ourselves. We will imitate Abraham our father, who was willing to sacrifice his only son Isaac to God.
Note: Some, following Bellarmine, book 1, On Marriage, chapter 23, hold that these marriages of the Jews with foreigners were invalid and null, because the law of Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 7, which forbade them, seems likewise to invalidate and annul them. More probably, Cajetan and others hold that by that law they were only forbidden, but not invalidated. For the law expresses nothing to indicate that they were null. Nevertheless, Ezra dissolved them, because under the law marriages could be dissolved by the bill of divorce permitted to the Jews, and therefore in this case they had to be dissolved, being contracted against the law and forbidden because of the danger of idolatry.
Verse 6: Ezra Went to the Chamber of Johanan
6. And Ezra arose from before the house of God, and went to the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib. — This "Eliashib" was the High Priest, and the son of Joiakim. For this was the succession of High Priests of that age: Seraiah, slain by the Chaldeans, was succeeded by his son Jozadak, he by Jeshua, he by Joiakim, he by Eliashib, as is clear from Nehemiah 12:22; therefore it seems that Joiakim had already died, so that Eliashib succeeded him, as Josephus asserts, book 11, chapter 5, and Eusebius in his Chronicle. It is certain that in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, Eliashib was High Priest, as is clear from Nehemiah, chapter 3, verse 1.
Verse 7: A Proclamation Was Sent Throughout Judah
7. And a proclamation was sent throughout Judah — that is, a herald was sent who by his voice would summon all the Jews and call them together in Jerusalem under penalty of excommunication and confiscation of goods, that they might hear the command of Ezra and the princes concerning the dismissal of pagan wives. Moreover, under Judah and Benjamin understand the other Israelites, who had joined themselves to the tribe of Judah under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the High Priest.
Verse 9: The Ninth Month, the Twentieth Day
9. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. — Note: The Hebrews did not use solar months as we do, but lunar months. For one lunation, or one circuit of the moon through the Zodiac, constituted one month. Moreover, the first month was that whose new moon was nearest to the vernal equinox, which now falls about the 21st of March: for then the Hebrews were freed from Egypt through the first celebration of the Passover and the Paschal Lamb in the first month. This first month was called Nisan, which corresponded partly to our March, partly to April. See what was said on Exodus 12. The ninth month, therefore, mentioned here, was called Kislev, which corresponded partly to our November, partly to December. For the order of the Hebrew months is this: Nisan, Iyyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul, Tishri, Marcheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, Adar. So Genebrardus in the Hebrew Calendar.
And all the people sat in the square before the house of God, trembling because of the sin and the rain — that is, they trembled inwardly from the consciousness of their crime tormenting them, namely that they had married pagan wives contrary to the law of God: they trembled likewise outwardly because of the rain and cold; for it was November.
Verse 11: Make Confession to the Lord God
11. Now therefore make confession to the Lord God. — The Hebrew reads: Give todhah, that is, confession, praise, glory, meaning: Repent, and confess to the Lord the guilt of your sin, with a serious and efficacious purpose of satisfaction and amendment, namely of repudiating your foreign wives. For this confession and repentance of yours will greatly praise and glorify God. For first, it will testify that He is just and you are sinners; second, it will submit you to God and to God's will and law; third, it will remove from you the danger of idolatry; fourth, it will separate you as the faithful and holy from the contact and contamination of unbelievers and the unclean. See what was said on Joshua 7:19, where Joshua says to Achan: "My son, give glory to God."
Verse 14: Let Princes Be Appointed
14. Let princes be appointed — to carry out the edict already issued, and to see to it that each one who had married foreign wives should dismiss them. From this it appears that this edict was put into execution, and that each one, partly voluntarily, partly compelled by the princes, dismissed his pagan wives; for Josephus expressly narrates that this was done, book 11, chapter 5, and 3 Ezra, chapter 9, verse 36. However, Cajetan denies this, and says that Ezra did not prevail in carrying this out because of the multitude of those resisting, who were attached to their wives, but that Nehemiah accomplished it ten years later, chapter 13, verse 23: "In those days," he says, "I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab; and their children spoke half in the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the Jewish language, but spoke according to the language of each people."
But this passage is not convincing. For it can be said, and it is quite probable, that the Jews, after so many promises, oaths, tears, and groans, returned to their vomit, and recalled the same foreign wives, or married other similar ones. For the entire people explicitly consented to Ezra's demand for the repudiation of the foreigners at this point, as is clear from verse 12, where it says: "And the whole multitude of the people answered and said with a loud voice: According to your word to us (as you have spoken and decreed for us) so let it be done."
And they finished (that is, they were fully and completely counted, noted, and entered into a catalog) with all the men who had married foreign wives. — Whence their names are subsequently listed at length, even those of priests; which fact indicates that there was a great corruption of morals at that time, such that it had pervaded even the priests. Moreover, "as the people, so the priest," says Isaiah, chapter 24, verse 2.
Verse 44: All These Had Married Foreign Wives
44. All these had married foreign wives, and some of them were women who had borne children. — For "had borne," the Hebrew has iasimu, that is, "they placed"; which some explain thus, meaning: Some of the foreign women presented their sons, whom they had conceived from Jewish men, to the judgment and will of the judges, to cast them out or retain them. But this matter did not pertain to the women, but to the husbands and to the judges, who here dealt with the matter and the case with the men, not with the wives. Therefore, for the women "to place" sons is the same as to bear sons, as our translator, the Septuagint, Vatablus, and others render it.