Ezra 10:2 (DBY)

Passage

And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have acted unfaithfully toward our God, and have taken foreign wives of the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing.

Nearby Context

Ezra 10:1 And while Ezra prayed, and made confession, weeping and falling down before the house of God, there were gathered to him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children; for the people wept very much.

Ezra 10:2 And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have acted unfaithfully toward our God, and have taken foreign wives of the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing.

Ezra 10:3 And now 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 commandments of our God; and let it be done according to the law.

Ezra 10:4 Arise, for this matter is incumbent on thee, and we will be with thee: be of good courage, and do [it].

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "faith", "shechaniah", "jehiel", "sons", "elam", "answered", "said", and "ezra". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "faith" and "shechaniah", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 1's "And while Ezra prayed and made confession..." into verse 3's "And now let us make a covenant...", so "faith" and "shechaniah" 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 "faith" and "shechaniah" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.