Ezra 10:17 (DBY)

Passage

And they ended with all the men that had taken foreign wives by the first day of the first month.

Nearby Context

Ezra 10:15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this; and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.

Ezra 10:16 And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest [and] certain of the chief fathers were separated according to their fathers' houses, and all of them [expressed] by name; and they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.

Ezra 10:17 And they ended with all the men that had taken foreign wives by the first day of the first month.

Ezra 10:18 And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken foreign wives, of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren: Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.

Ezra 10:19 And they gave their hand to send away their wives; and they offered a ram of the flock, as trespass-offering for their guilt.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "ended", "taken", "foreign", "wives", "first", and "month". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "ended" and "taken", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 16's "And the children of the captivity did..." into verse 18's "And among the sons of the priests...", so "ended" and "taken" belong inside that flow. In Ezra context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "ended" and "taken" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.