So now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all the foreign wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the command of our God. Let it be done according to the Law.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and those who as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them, according to the advice of my master and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.
- NASB So now let’s make a covenant with our God to send away all the wives and their children, following the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the Law.
- NLT Let us now make a covenant with our God to divorce our pagan wives and to send them away with their children. We will follow the advice given by you and by the others who respect the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law of God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Shecaniah proposed a covenant to put away the foreign wives and their children, in line with God's law. He called for decisive obedience to undo the trespass.
Overview
The proposed remedy was severe: dissolving the unlawful marriages to restore covenant purity. This action, which grieves modern readers, reflects an emergency measure to save the fragile remnant from the idolatry that had destroyed the nation before. Faithful Christians debate the propriety and lasting application of such measures, but Scripture presents it here as the community's own resolve to obey God's law and forsake sin; the abiding lesson is wholehearted separation from whatever draws the heart from God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 22
- Deut 7:2–3and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.
- Ezra 9:4Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles, while I sat there in horror until the evening offering.
- 1 Cor 7:12–13To 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.
- Ps 119:120My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.
- Josh 23:12–13For if you turn away and cling to the rest of these nations that remain among you, and if you intermarry and associate with them,
- 2 Chr 34:21“Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for those remaining in Israel and Judah concerning the words in the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that has been poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD by doing all that is written in this book.”
- Deut 29:12so that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, which He is making with you today, and into His oath,
- Neh 9:38In view of all this, we make a binding agreement, putting it in writing and sealing it with the names of our leaders, Levites, and priests.”
- Ps 119:59I considered my ways and turned my steps to Your testimonies.
- Ezra 10:44All these men had married foreign women, and some of them had children by these wives.
- Josh 9:6They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant land; please make a treaty with us.”
- Neh 8:14And they found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month.
- 2 Chr 34:31–32So the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book.
- 2 Kgs 11:17Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people that they would be the LORD’s people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people.
- Ezek 9:4“Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the LORD, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”
- Neh 10:29–39hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to carefully obey all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the LORD our Lord.
- Isa 8:20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
- 2 Chr 30:12Moreover, the power of God was on the people in Judah to give them one heart to obey the command of the king and his officials according to the word of the LORD.
- Isa 66:2Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.
- 2 Chr 29:10Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, so that His fierce anger will turn away from us.
- 2 Chr 34:27because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its people, and because you have humbled yourself before Me and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD.
- Neh 13:1–3At that time the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people, and in it they found the passage stating that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,
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Christ at the center
The return from exile and the rebuilt altar keep alive the hope of a greater restoration — the true return from our deeper exile of sin accomplished by Christ.
How Ezra 10:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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