Ezra 10:44

10:44 All these had taken foreign wives, and some of them also had children by these women. ¹ 

Ezra 10:2

10:2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, ²  addressed Ezra:

“We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying ³  foreign women from the local peoples. ⁴  Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard. ⁵ 

[10:44]  ¹ tc The final statement in v. 44 is difficult in terms of both its syntax and its meaning. The present translation attempts to make sense of the MT. But the passage may have undergone corruption in the transmission process. One proposal is that the text should be emended to read “and they sent these wives and children away” (cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, CEV).

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

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

[10:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “upon this.”