“Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.”
My Notes
What Does Ezra 10:3 Mean?
"Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law." Shecaniah proposes the radical solution to the intermarriage crisis: divorce the foreign wives and send away the children born to them. The proposal is heartbreaking in its specificity — these aren't abstractions. These are women and children who will be separated from their husbands and fathers.
The phrase "let it be done according to the law" appeals to Torah as the standard. The proposal isn't Ezra's — it comes from within the community. The people who tremble at God's commandment are the ones who propose the most painful obedience. This is one of the most ethically difficult passages in the Old Testament, where covenant faithfulness requires devastating personal cost.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How do you process the human cost of radical obedience when the cost falls on innocent people?
- 2.What does it mean to tremble at God's commandment enough to accept devastating personal consequences?
- 3.When has obedience required you to choose between personal pain now and worse consequences later?
- 4.How do you hold compassion for the people affected by necessary reform while still supporting the reform?
Devotional
Put away the wives. Send away the children. Let it be done according to the law. The most heartbreaking proposal in the Old Testament, made by people who love God's law more than their own comfort.
This passage is one of the hardest in Scripture to read — and it should be. Real women. Real children. Sent away because their marriages violated God's covenant. The human cost of this obedience is staggering, and the text doesn't hide it. Ezra weeps through the entire process (10:1). The people weep. The rain pours down as if heaven itself is crying.
The proposal comes from Shecaniah — not from Ezra. The community diagnoses its own sin and proposes its own remedy. The people who tremble at God's word are the ones willing to pay the highest price for obedience. This isn't religious cruelty imposed by a leader. It's radical self-correction proposed by the community.
The difficulty is real. These foreign wives weren't evil. Many of them probably loved their husbands. The children were innocent. And the text doesn't pretend the solution is painless. It's excruciating. But the alternative — the slow spiritual compromise that had destroyed Israel before, that had filled the land with idolatry and led to exile — was worse. Ezra's generation faced a choice between personal pain now and national destruction later.
Some obedience costs everything. The law demanded something that broke hearts. And the people who trembled at God's word chose the law over their own feelings. Not because they were heartless. Because they'd seen what compromise produces, and they refused to walk that road again.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God,.... Renew our covenant with him, and lay ourselves under fresh…
Let it be done according to the law - i. e., let a formal “bill of divorcement” be given to each foreign wife, whereby…
Let us make a covenant - נכרת ברית nichrath berith, let us cut or divide the covenant sacrifice. See the notes on Gen…
We are here told,
I. What good impressions were made upon the people by Ezra's humiliation and confession of sin. No…
let us make a covenant&c. Compare other covenants undertaken by the people, e.g. 2Ch 15:12; 2Ch 29:10; 2Ch 34:31-32; Neh…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture