Tevet 1 – They sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter…

December 13, 2023

Tevet 1, 5784; from sunset December 12, 2023, to sunset December 13, 2023

This is the name “Ezra” (עֶזְרָא) the Scribe as seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls; written by a scribe over two thousand years ago.

Ezra Begins to Examine the Matter of the Foreign Wives

A couple of weeks ago, the Israelites appeared before Ezra and confessed that some of them had taken pagan wives and some had children by those wives; even some of the priests and Levites. They met on a cold, rainy day to discuss the matter and decided that it could not possibly be resolved in one day. They agreed to appoint leaders and set times for each man having a foreign bride to come and resolve the matter. Today, in the Bible, they began reviewing the cases; it took them three months to complete the process.

“Please, let the leaders of our entire assembly stand; and let all those in our cities who have taken pagan wives come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of their cities, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned away from us in this matter.”

Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite gave them support. Then the descendants of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of the fathers’ households, were set apart by the fathers’ households, each of them by name; and they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.

By the first day of the first month they finished questioning all the men who had taken pagan wives. – Ezra 10:14-17 (NKJ)

Did you know that our posts are categorized and tagged by content?

When you visit our home page at https://todayinthebible.com and select any post,

you can find the associated categories and tags just to the right of the title.

Simply click on any tag and you will be taken to all related posts.