Ezra 10:18-44--Those Guilty of Intermarriage

Ezra 10:18-44
English Standard Version

Those Guilty of Intermarriage
18 Now there were found some of the sons of the priests who had married foreign women: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah, some of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers. 19 They pledged themselves to put away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt. 20 Of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah. 21 Of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah. 22 Of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.

23 Of the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (that is, Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. 24 Of the singers: Eliashib. Of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.

​25 And of Israel: of the sons of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Hashabiah, and Benaiah. 26 Of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah. 27 Of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza. 28 Of the sons of Bebai were Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai. 29 Of the sons of Bani were Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth. 30 Of the sons of Pahath-moab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh. 31 Of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, 32 Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah. 33 Of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei. 34 Of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel, 35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, 36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, 37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, Jaasu. 38 Of the sons of Binnui: Shimei, 39 Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah, 40 Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, 41 Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, 42 Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph. 43 Of the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, and Benaiah. 44 All these had married foreign women, and some of the women had even borne children.

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If I hadn't told you what was coming next at the end of yesterday's journal article, you probably would have walked away from that passage pretty hopeful that the whole congregation seemed to agree they had sinned and were willing to turn from their ways with the exception of only two holdouts.  However, we see that even after the men of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi had several months to comply, many did not.  Why not?  We'll see the reason is that many of these men had not only taken these foreign women as wives but had children with them.  A divorce is messy enough when it's just the two married people, but it gets a whole lot messier when you bring children into the mix, and that is exactly what God warned the people of Israel about when he prohibited them from marrying these women or giving their daughters in marriage to the men of these culture.  We've only been talking about the issues of men marrying women here, but I'm sure there were some households that married their daughters off to the men of the surrounding nations too.

Some of those who failed to follow-through on their vow made a guilt offering for breaking their vow, but it seemed most did not.  It seems they either took a vow that they never meant to keep, or they broke the vow that they had intended to keep when they made it, but they were not sorry they broke it when the time of accountability came.

This is how the book of Ezra ends, on quite a sad note.  The Temple has been rebuilt, but the hearts of the people are still broken and as bad or worse than the enemy nations around them.  It seemed much easier to fix the temple (and the walls for Nehemiah, which comes next) than to fix the hearts of rebellious people that want to live in sin, but don't want to be judged for their sin.  I'm trying to not be any harder on the Israelites here than I would be on anyone else--we all naturally want to see how far we can go without getting punished and test those who make and enforce the laws to see if they were really serious about enforcing the laws they've made (how much can we go over the speed limit and not get pulled over? How late can we get to work without getting in trouble?  You know the things we all are tempted with and deal with).  We may go to church on Sunday and offer magnificent sacrifices of praise, but if we are living disobedient lives on a day-to-day basis, is our worship really pleasing and acceptable to the LORD?  


1 Samuel 15:22
English Standard Version
22 And Samuel said,

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
    as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
    and to listen than the fat of rams.