The people join Ezra in repentance
A proclamation was then issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem for all the exiles to assemble in Jerusalem. 8 Anyone who failed to appear within three days would forfeit all his property, in accordance with the decision of the officials and elders, and would himself be expelled from the assembly of the exiles.
9 Within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain. 10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. 11 Now make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the people around you and from your foreign wives.”
According to the NIV translation, Jonathan, Jahzeiah, Meshullam, and Shabbethai were the only men to oppose any action to correct the situation. The verse in question is somewhat ambiguous in Hebrew, so it is not completely clear what each of these men was supporting or opposing. Some commentators have interpreted the verse to mean that Jonathan and Jahzeiah were zealous supporters of Ezra who were opposed to any delay of the action. It seems more likely, however, that these four men were the only ones to oppose action against the illegal marriages. According to this interpretation, everyone else favored action but agreed that it would take some time to solve the problem. There is nothing in the text to suggest that Ezra had any objection to the proposed delay.
The reason for the delay was twofold. It was midwinter, when cold rain falls almost every day in Israel. The time was hardly right for mass outdoor meetings. Furthermore, the problem was simply too big to deal with in a day. The large number of people involved in this offense could be dealt with most effectively if each individual was confronted by a group of elders who would serve as representatives of the whole assembly. In some ways, this was similar to our proceedings in church discipline today. Congregations have elders who assist the pastor in dealing with discipline cases on behalf of the whole congregation. When the people followed this procedure, within three months they had dealt with all the cases.
At first glance, it may seem that this approach added one sin to another. One might ask, “Didn’t the proposed solution require sending away their heathen wives and families, thereby adding the sin of divorce to the previous sin of intermarriage?” In 1 Corinthians chapter 7, Saint Paul tells New Testament believers who are married to unbelievers to remain married to their unbelieving husbands or wives, as long as the husband or wife is willing.
In reality, the two cases are quite different. For one thing, the people in Corinth had married heathen spouses while they themselves were still heathen. As Gentiles, they had been under no command of God forbidding intermarriage but had entered those marriages in good faith. The situation was quite different in Ezra’s day. The guilty Israelites had entered unions that were illegal from the start because they were forbidden to Old Testament Jews by God’s command (Deuteronomy 7:3). Malachi chapter 2 implies that many who had entered these intermarriages had broken marriages to Israelite wives in order to do so. The prophet Malachi speaks against “marrying the daughter of a foreign god” (verse 11) in the same context that he condemns divorcing “the wife of your youth” (verse 15). Malachi chapter 2 also strongly condemns the priests for their role in Israel’s unfaithfulness.
Ezra’s action of dissolving these mixed marriages was more comparable to telling someone to stop living in an adulterous relationship that was wrong from the start than to forcing someone to dissolve a valid marriage. Ezra required that the people obey the commandment that God had given them for the preservation of Israel, even though this undoubtedly caused pain and hardship for some of the wives who were sent away. The blame for the tragic side effects of this action belongs to those who had created the situation by ignoring God’s law.
Today as well, people who ignore God’s standards for faithfulness in marriage often cause pain to their spouses and innocent children. The responsibility for such an unhappy situation rests with those who created the problem by despising God’s law. Ezra’s harsh remedy was not without pain, but it prevented the greater evil of having Israel swallowed up by the surrounding peoples. A great threat to the restoration of the nation had been averted.