Ezra 10:19
New International Version
(They all gave their hands in pledge to put away their wives, and for their guilt they each presented a ram from the flock as a guilt offering.)

New Living Translation
They vowed to divorce their wives, and they each acknowledged their guilt by offering a ram as a guilt offering.

English Standard Version
They pledged themselves to put away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt.

Berean Standard Bible
They pledged to send their wives away, and for their guilt they presented a ram from the flock as a guilt offering.

King James Bible
And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass.

New King James Version
And they gave their promise that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they presented a ram of the flock as their trespass offering.

New American Standard Bible
They pledged to send away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.

NASB 1995
They pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense.

NASB 1977
And they pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense.

Legacy Standard Bible
They gave their hand in pledge to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.

Amplified Bible
They vowed to send away their [pagan] wives, and being guilty, they each offered a ram of the flock for their offense.

Christian Standard Bible
They pledged to send their wives away, and being guilty, they offered a ram from the flock for their guilt;

Holman Christian Standard Bible
They pledged to send their wives away, and being guilty, they offered a ram from the flock for their guilt;

American Standard Version
And they gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.

English Revised Version
And they gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
They shook hands as a pledge that they would get rid of their wives. They sacrificed a ram from their flock as an offering for guilt because they were guilty.

Good News Translation
They promised to divorce their wives, and they offered a ram as a sacrifice for their sins.

International Standard Version
Pleading guilty, they promised to divorce their wives. Then they offered a ram from their flocks for their offense.

Majority Standard Bible
They pledged to send their wives away, and for their guilt they presented a ram from the flock as a guilt offering.

NET Bible
(They gave their word to send away their wives; their guilt offering was a ram from the flock for their guilt.)

New Heart English Bible
They gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.

Webster's Bible Translation
And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass.

World English Bible
They gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
and they give their hand to send out their wives, and being guilty, a ram of the flock for their guilt.

Young's Literal Translation
and they give their hand to send out their wives, and, being guilty, a ram of the flock, for their guilt.

Smith's Literal Translation
And they will give their hand to bring forth their wives; and being guilty, a ram of the flock for their guilt.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
And they gave their hands to put away their wives, and to offer for their offence a ram of the flock.

Catholic Public Domain Version
And they swore with their hands that they would cast aside their wives, and that they would offer for their offense a ram from among the sheep.

New American Bible
They pledged themselves to dismiss their wives, and as a guilt offering for their guilt they gave a ram from the flock.

New Revised Standard Version
They pledged themselves to send away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
And they also consented that they would put away their wives; so they offered rams of the flock for their sins.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
And they were persuaded also that they would send away their wives, and they offered rams of sheep for their sins.
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
And they gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, [they offered] a ram of the flock for their guilt.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And they pledged themselves to put away their wives, and offered a ram of the flock for a trespass-offering because of their trespass.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Those Guilty of Intermarriage
18Among the descendants of the priests who had married foreign women were found these descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19They pledged to send their wives away, and for their guilt they presented a ram from the flock as a guilt offering. 20From the descendants of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.…

Cross References
Nehemiah 9:2
Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

Leviticus 26:40-42
But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me— / and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity, / then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

2 Chronicles 30:15
And on the fourteenth day of the second month they slaughtered the Passover lamb. The priests and Levites were ashamed, and they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the LORD.

Nehemiah 13:23-27
In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. / Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of the other peoples, but could not speak the language of Judah. / I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves! ...

Malachi 2:11-12
Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the LORD’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. / As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who is awake and aware—even if he brings an offering to the LORD of Hosts.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? / What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? / What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” ...

Deuteronomy 7:3-4
Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, / because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.

1 Corinthians 7:10-16
To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. / But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. / To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If a brother has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. ...

1 Kings 11:1-4
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women. / These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love. / He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away. ...

Matthew 5:32
But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Deuteronomy 24:1-4
If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house. / If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife, / and the second man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house, or if he dies, ...

1 Corinthians 5:1-2
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. / And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this?

Exodus 34:15-16
Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices. / And when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.

Romans 7:2-3
For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. / So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

Joshua 23:12-13
For if you turn away and cling to the rest of these nations that remain among you, and if you intermarry and associate with them, / know for sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you.


Treasury of Scripture

And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass.

2 Kings 10:15
And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him: and he saluted him, and said to him, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot.

1 Chronicles 29:24
And all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves unto Solomon the king.

2 Chronicles 30:8
Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.

a ram

Leviticus 5:15,16
If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the LORD; then he shall bring for his trespass unto the LORD a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with thy estimation by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering: …

Leviticus 6:4,6
Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found, …

Jump to Previous
Flock Guilt Guilty Hand Hands Male Offense Offered Offering Pledge Pledged Presented Ram Sheep Sin Themselves Trespass Wives Word
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Flock Guilt Guilty Hand Hands Male Offense Offered Offering Pledge Pledged Presented Ram Sheep Sin Themselves Trespass Wives Word
Ezra 10
1. Ezra encouraged to reform the strange marriages
6. Ezra assembles the people
9. The people repent, and promise amendment
15. The care to perform it
18. The names of them which had married strange wives














They pledged to send their wives away
This phrase refers to the Israelites' commitment to separate from foreign wives, which was a response to the intermarriage issue that had led them away from God's laws. The context is the post-exilic period when Ezra led a reform to restore the community's faithfulness to the covenant. The sending away of foreign wives was a drastic measure to ensure the purity of the Israelite community, aligning with Deuteronomy 7:3-4, which warns against intermarriage with pagan nations due to the risk of idolatry. This action reflects a deep repentance and desire to return to God's commands.

and for their guilt
The acknowledgment of guilt indicates a recognition of sin and a need for atonement. In the Old Testament, guilt often required a sacrificial offering to restore the relationship with God. This reflects the broader biblical theme of sin, repentance, and atonement, which is central to the covenant relationship between God and His people. The community's collective guilt highlights the seriousness of their transgression and the need for communal repentance.

they presented a ram from the flock as a guilt offering
The offering of a ram as a guilt offering is rooted in Levitical law, specifically Leviticus 5:14-19, which outlines the requirements for a guilt offering. This type of offering was meant to atone for unintentional sins or sins requiring restitution. The choice of a ram signifies the value and seriousness of the offering, as rams were considered valuable animals. This act of sacrifice prefigures the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who is often typified as the Lamb of God, providing the final atonement for sin. The offering underscores the necessity of blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, a theme that runs throughout the Bible and finds its fulfillment in the New Testament.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Ezra
A scribe and priest who led the second group of exiles back to Jerusalem. He was instrumental in the spiritual and religious reform of the Jewish community.

2. Israelite Men
The men who had married foreign women, which was against the Mosaic Law. They are the ones making the pledge in this verse.

3. Foreign Wives
The non-Israelite women whom the Israelite men had married, leading to the need for repentance and reform.

4. Jerusalem
The central place of worship and the location where these events and reforms were taking place.

5. Guilt Offering
A specific type of sacrifice in the Levitical law meant to atone for certain sins, indicating the seriousness of their transgression.
Teaching Points
Repentance and Obedience
The Israelite men recognized their sin and took concrete steps to rectify it. True repentance involves both acknowledgment of sin and action to correct it.

The Importance of Purity
The command to send away foreign wives was about maintaining spiritual purity and obedience to God's commands. This teaches us the importance of aligning our lives with God's standards.

Sacrificial Atonement
The offering of a ram as a guilt offering underscores the necessity of atonement for sin. It points to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, who atones for our sins.

Community Accountability
The community's involvement in this process highlights the role of accountability in spiritual growth and reform.

Covenant Faithfulness
The Israelites' actions were a return to covenant faithfulness, reminding us of the importance of keeping our commitments to God.Verse 19. - They gave their hands that they would put away their wives. It is not clear whether this is intended to be said of Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah only, or of the entire body of persons found guilty of having married strange wives. Most probably the court made out the divorces in the generality of cases, but were content to take a solemn pledge from members of the high priest's family.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
They pledged
וַיִּתְּנ֥וּ (way·yit·tə·nū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

to send their wives
נְשֵׁיהֶ֑ם (nə·šê·hem)
Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 802: Woman, wife, female

away,
לְהוֹצִ֣יא (lə·hō·w·ṣî)
Preposition-l | Verb - Hifil - Infinitive construct
Strong's 3318: To go, bring, out, direct and proxim

and for their guilt
וַאֲשֵׁמִ֥ים (wa·’ă·šê·mîm)
Conjunctive waw | Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 818: Guilty, presenting a, sin-offering

[they presented] a ram
אֵֽיל־ (’êl-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 352: Strength, strong, a chief, a ram, a pilaster, an oak, strong tree

from the flock
צֹ֖אן (ṣōn)
Noun - common singular
Strong's 6629: Small cattle, sheep and goats, flock

as
עַל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

a guilt offering.
אַשְׁמָתָֽם׃ (’aš·mā·ṯām)
Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 819: Guiltiness, a fault, the presentation of a, sin-offering


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OT History: Ezra 10:19 They gave their hand that they would (Ezr. Ez)
Ezra 10:18
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