Ezra 9.1-15 tells us about a little known concept in the Scriptures. There is a concept called spiritual adultery discussed here and it is grounds for a divorce, as we shall see. We will also see this in Ezra 10.1-2 and Neh 13.23-31. When Ezra arrives back in the land, he was confronted with some bad news. The people, priests and Levites of Israel have not separated themselves from the people of the land and their idolatry. Even after all they have been through, there was still some who would not repent. Now, that is bad enough, but the marriages they had entered into would affect business, government, social and religious life.
The problem was not an “ethnic” one, the problem is they did not separate themselves from the “abominations” and idolatry of the people (9.1). When the people forsook their Jewish identity and engaged in idolatry, it would not be long until the Jewish identity would be lost in the land. Ezra tells them that the Torah spoke against this practice of marrying Canaanites (Exo 34.11-16; Deut 7.1-4). It seems the leaders were the worst offenders of all. They were leading the people in the wrong direction.
Ezra was shocked when he heard of what they were doing. He had just come through a four month journey back to the land (Ezra 7.9) and probably didn’t think there were many problems, but he found things worse than he could have imagined. He was appalled and mortified at what he found (v 3). He knew that they were driven into exile because of idolatry and was shocked that the people didn’t seem to connect what happened in the past with their present behavior.
However, Ezra was not alone. There were others who knew God’s word and they met until the time of the evening offering (the Tamid around 3 p.m.-Num 28.1-8) then Ezra rose and prayed a prayer of confession. This is a model prayer and is designed to lead and teach others how to pray. He prayed on his knees, which is a very common posture in prayer (1 Kings 8.54; Psa 95.6; Dan 6.10; Matt 17.14; Matt 20.20; Mark 1.40; Luke 22.40; Acts 7.60, 9.40, 20.36, 22.5; Eph 3.14). He also spread out his hands, which is the most common posture. Today, people close their eyes, bow their heads and fold their hands, but they did not do that in the Scriptures. They spread out their hands toward heaven in a gesture to show helplessness in the situation.
Ezra was not only ashamed but embarrassed, and did not even lift his face. This showed that he was “weighed down” by the sins of the people. Embarrassment is the pain one feels when ashamed. Ezra also included himself in his prayer by saying “our iniquities” instead of “their iniquities.” Because of the covenant, he was linked together with those who had forsaken the Torah.
He brings up the fact that Yehovah has been kind to his people even though they have sinned. He realizes God’s grace has allowed them to return to the land. He gave them a “peg in his holy place” which means they had a safe and positive place in his Temple again. The “tent peg” is the Hebrew word “yotaid” and these pegs were used to hang and store utensils in the Mishkan. It did not have cupboards or closets to store vessels, so pegs were used. Since Ezra had just seen the new Temple, he had this in mind.
The yotaid, or tent peg, is also a term for the Messiah and it is shaped like the letter “vav” in Hebrew. For example, a tent peg was driven through the head of Sisera, a type of the False Messiah in Judges 4.21. In Isa 22.15-25, Shebna is also a type of the False Messiah and Eliakim is a picture of Yeshua, the true Messiah. In Isa 22.24 it says that Eliakim (Yeshua) is the true yotaid and they will hang on him all the glory of his Father’s house. In Isa 22.25 it says that Shebna (the False Messiah) is a false yotaid (tent peg) driven in a firm place and will give way (be deposed) and break off, and the load hanging on it (those who follow the False Messiah) will be cut off.
Ezra has recognized that God is blessing the people, and how evil it was for the people to respond to that blessing by engaging in sin. They even had the protection of the king of Persia (“given us a wall” in v 9 meaning protection). They had no excuses or explanations. The people thought that marriage to these pagan wives would help establish their settlements, but it will destroy those very settlements in the end. Even the length of the exile was shortened by God’s mercy, so Ezra calls upon that mercy now. He knew nobody could stand before God and explain this away.
In Ezra 10.1-44 we have further information of the problem of intermarriage with pagan wives. Ezra’s prayer was powerful. He publicly showed deep, heartfelt concern and he even threw himself down before the temple. The people also experienced a deep repentance and wept bitterly. A man named Shecaniah (dwelling of Yehovah) then exhorts the people and says that they have truly sinned against God by marrying foreign women. He also tells them there is hope. Now, we need to explain what is going on here.
The Torah did not exclude other groups. Israel practiced intermarriage with other nations and there were no formal requirements except they had to reject paganism and a priest could not marry a divorced woman, or a woman profaned by harlotry (Lev 21.7). The high priest had to marry a virgin of Israel. He cannot marry a widow, a divorced woman or someone profaned by harlotry (Lev 21.13-14). Shecaniah then says that their repentance should be followed by action (what faith is), and that they should “put away” (divorce) all the wives and children according to the Torah. Then Ezra rose and made the priests, Levites and all Israel take an oath saying that they would do according to this exhortation.
Ezra did not eat or drink because he was in mourning over this whole situation. Because he had great authority from the king of Persia, he told the people is a proclamation that the people were to come within three days to fulfill the vow they had just taken. If they don’t, then all their possessions would be forfeited and the individual would be “karet” or “cut off” from the Kahal (assembly).
As a result, all the men of Judah and Benjamin came to Jerusalem within the three days. It was Kislev 20 and it was cold because it was winter, and there was a heavy rain. The people sat in the open square in fear of the wrath of God. Ezra stood and said that they had been unfaithful and have married foreign wives. They were to confess their sin and separate themselves from the people of the land and from their foreign wives (a divorce).
The assembly (Kahal) responded by saying he was right and they would do it. However, they said it was the rainy season and they were not able to stand in the open weather (10.13). The task to be done would take more than a few days to find out who had taken foreign wives. They wanted the elders (or the courts) to sit and find out who did what when they came at the appointed times (festivals) until the matter was settled. Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel (created by God), and Jahaziah (Yah sees) the son of Tikvah (hope), opposed this, and were seconded by Meshullam (peace maker) and Shabbetha (of the sabbath) the Levite (10.15).
But the exiles went ahead and divorced their foreign wives. Ezra selected men who were family leaders and they convened on Tevet 1, about three months later. In Ezra 10.18-22 it was found that even priests, who were to understand and teach the Torah to the people (Ezek 44.23) were guilty. Some were the sons of Yeshua, the son of Yozadak (Yehovah is righteous), the high priest, and his brothers (10.18). Maybe that is why he is seen in Zech 3.3 to be wearing filthy garments. He had not restrained his sons from their unlawful marriages. They pledged to divorce their wives. They offered a ram of the flock because they did this with full knowledge that it was forbidden in the Torah. If it was done in ignorance, they would have offered a goat.
Ezra 10.20-22 gives us a further list of priests, and Ezra 10.23-24 gives us a list of the Levites, singers and gatekeepers who were guilty, and in Ezra 10.25-43 it gives us a list of the Israelites. All of these married foreign wives, and some of them had children, yet they divorced their wives anyway. Mention is made of these children being put away also in Ezra 10.3 by Shecaniah, but there is no mention that they followed through with that, only the wives by order of Ezra (10.11). As a result, it is believed that they were not put out because they had Jewish fathers. They were taken care of and educated in the Torah There were some who did not comply and went north and settled around Shechem (shoulder) and their descendants were numbered among the Samaritans.
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