Ezra 10:1-2

Context

The People Confess Their Sins

10:1 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself to the ground before the temple of God, a very large crowd of Israelites – men, women, and children alike – gathered around him. The people wept loudly.¹ 10:2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam,² addressed Ezra:

“We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying³ foreign women from the local peoples.⁴ Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard.⁵

[10:1] ¹tn Heb “with much weeping.”

[10:2] ²tc The translation reads with the Qere, many medieval Hebrew MSS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and Vulgate עֵילָם (’elam, “Elam”) rather than the reading עוֹלָם (’olam, “eternity”) found in the MT.

[10:2] ³tn Heb “in that we have given a dwelling to.” So also in vv. 14, 17, 18.

[10:2] ⁴tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

[10:2] ⁵tn Heb “upon this.”