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Ezra 10 · a question people ask

Does the book of Ezra really end with a list?

In the text

Yes. After the names, the book's last verse is "All these had taken foreign wives. Some of them had wives by whom they had children" (10:44). There is no prayer, speech or summary after it, and the book doesn't say why it ends there. Ezra is named again in Nehemiah: the people "spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel" (Nehemiah 8:1), and "Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could hear with understanding" (Nehemiah 8:2). These notes claim no more than that about how the two books join.

The verses

“All these had taken foreign wives. Some of them had wives by whom they had children.”
Ezra 10:44 · World English Bible
“All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the wide place that was in front of the water gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.”
Nehemiah 8:1-2 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Ezra 10

Ezra 10: 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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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions