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Ezra 10 Bible study: We have trespassed

Ezra 10 opens with a people weeping before God's house (10:1) and a man who says "We have trespassed" and "Yet now there is hope for Israel" in one breath (10:2). Its list begins with the priests (10:18), and every family it names "Of Israel" is named in Ezra 2's list of those who came up out of the captivity.

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“Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God’s house, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly.”
Ezra 10:1 · World English Bible

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“In Ezra 10, Shecaniah begins by saying, "We have trespassed against our God."”

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What's really going on

While Ezra prayed

In the text

From 7:27 Ezra has told his story himself: "I was strengthened" (Ezra 7:28), "When I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe" (Ezra 9:3). Chapter 10 speaks of him by name: "Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God’s house, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly" (10:1). Then someone answers him: "Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam" (10:2). His first words are "We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land" (10:2) (tap trespassed, married, foreign), and in the same breath, "Yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing" (10:2) (tap hope). The proposal is his: "Now therefore let’s make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and those who are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law" (10:3) (tap covenant, put away, tremble). "Arise, for the matter belongs to you and we are with you. Be courageous, and do it" (10:4). Then "Ezra arose, and made the chiefs of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel to swear that they would do according to this word. So they swore" (10:5). And still, "he didn’t eat bread or drink water, for he mourned because of the trespass of the exiles" (10:6).

Honest questions

Questions people ask about Ezra 10

That was a taste

The rest of Ezra 10 is waiting in Favor

  • Three days, and a great rain
  • The matter examined, and the names
  • Families from the first list
  • A ram for their guilt
  • 13 questions as you read
  • 12 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

מִקְוֶהmiqvehsay mik-VEH

Brown-Driver-Briggs has more than one entry under this number; the one tagged in 10:2 is "hope". Strong's: "something waited for, i.e. confidence". "Yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing" (10:2). It is the word's only use in Ezra, and Shecaniah says it straight after "We have trespassed against our God" (10:2). Jeremiah uses it of the LORD himself: "LORD, the hope of Israel" (Jeremiah 17:13). It is also in David's prayer, where the WEB has "there is no remaining" (1 Chronicles 29:15).

For your group

Ezra 10 Bible study questions

  1. 1Shecaniah says "We have trespassed against our God" and, in the same breath, "Yet now there is hope for Israel" (10:2). Why is it hard to say both of those about yourself at once?
  2. 2Ezra "didn’t eat bread or drink water, for he mourned because of the trespass of the exiles" (10:6). What does it look like to grieve over wrong done among God's people, and not only over your own?
  3. 3Ezra says, "make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers" (10:11). What's the difference between feeling bad about something and making confession to the LORD?

Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Ezra 10 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.

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Questions

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home