Ezra 10 - Summary

While Ezra prayed and wept before the temple, a great assembly gathered and wept bitterly, and Shecaniah son of Jehiel proposed making a covenant to put away the foreign wives and their children according to the law, encouraging Ezra to take action. Ezra rose and made the leading priests, Levites, and all Israel swear to act accordingly, then withdrew fasting and mourning over the faithlessness. A proclamation summoned all returned exiles to Jerusalem within three days under penalty of property forfeiture and exclusion from the assembly, and the people gathered trembling in the rain; Ezra confronted them about their faithlessness in marrying foreign women, increasing Israel's guilt, commanding them to confess to the Lord, separate from the peoples, and put away their foreign wives. The people agreed but requested time due to the large numbers involved and the rainy season, so appointed officials examined each case over three months, and the chapter concludes by listing by family the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and laymen who had married foreign wives, some of whom had children, and who put them away.