Ezra 10:18–22, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Ezra 10:18–22
Priests pledge dismissal and offer a ram
Priestly houses first, with a ram for guilt
Among the sons of the priests who had taken foreign wives are named men of the sons of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. They give their hand to put away their wives, and being guilty they offer a ram of the flock for their guilt. Then Immer, Harim, and Pashhur yield more names. Leadership households are listed at the front so the reform cannot be sold as a crackdown only on the weak.
A pledge of dismissal is not a full story of households
The priests' handclasp and the ram are public ritual. The wives remain unnamed; children are not described. Coercion now has liturgical dress: a vow, a sacrifice, a recorded name of a husband. That gravity does not convert the scene into ethnic hygiene, and it does not authorize later readers to copy expulsion as church policy. It shows how a remnant tried to cut a covenant knot it believed was killing it, while the cost to the unlisted persons is left almost unsaid.
How this should shape us
Start with your own house if you must speak of communal guilt, but do not let a ram and a signature hide the people who will live with the sentence. Priestly example is not a blank check for repeating this remedy in another age.
Teach it back
Explain Ezra 10:18–22 in your own words. Include the movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Readers debate whether the list records completed divorces or named cases and pledges, and how uniformly the policy was applied. The wives' and children's outcomes remain unreported.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Ezra 10:18–22, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic wording, morphology, names, clause relations, and translation controls.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ezra.xml, Hebrew and Aramaic words and morphology for 10:18–22
Supports: Material lexical, grammatical, textual, Persian-period, numerical, and translation notes within the unit.
NET Bible Ezra PDF, printed pp. 761–762, translation and translator notes on 10:18–22
Supports: Directly inspected commentary on literary shape, documents, chronology, Persian administration, temple, identity, and family reform.
Smith-Christopher, Oxford Bible Commentary, printed p. 318 on Ezra 10:18–22
Supports: Torah reuse, holy seed, women and children, canonical tensions, reception, and explicit non-imitation controls.
Szechy dissertation, printed pp. 35–62, 139–142, 188–192, and 191–207
Supports: Multidimensional study of marriage dissolution, identity boundaries, women, children, costs, and alternatives.
Venter, HTS 74.4 a4854, pp. 1–4, 5–9, and 10–12
Supports: Persian Yehud, genealogy, law, temple allegiance, identity markers, holy seed, women, land, and boundary construction.
Lai dissertation, printed pp. 46–120, 172–194, and 226–254
Supports: Ethnic-consciousness alternative, Torah and covenant controls, dissent, family costs, and contextual application critique.
Usue, NGTT 53 Supplement 2, printed pp. 103–111
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Ezra 10:18–22, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew aramaic text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Ezra
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic wording, morphology, names, clause relations, and translation controls.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ezra.xml, Hebrew and Aramaic words and morphology for 10:18–22
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Ezra with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Material lexical, grammatical, textual, Persian-period, numerical, and translation notes within the unit.
Exact location: NET Bible Ezra PDF, printed pp. 761–762, translation and translator notes on 10:18–22
Open source ↗scholarly commentary article
Ezra-Nehemiah
Daniel L. Smith-Christopher
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, 2001
Supports: Directly inspected commentary on literary shape, documents, chronology, Persian administration, temple, identity, and family reform.
Exact location: Smith-Christopher, Oxford Bible Commentary, printed p. 318 on Ezra 10:18–22
Open source ↗doctoral dissertation
Reading Ezra 9-10 as Christian Scripture
Csilla Szechy
Durham University, 2009
Supports: Torah reuse, holy seed, women and children, canonical tensions, reception, and explicit non-imitation controls.
Exact location: Szechy dissertation, printed pp. 35–62, 139–142, 188–192, and 191–207
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access article
The dissolving of marriages in Ezra 9-10 and Nehemiah 13 revisited
Pieter M. Venter
HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 74.4, article a4854, 2018
Supports: Multidimensional study of marriage dissolution, identity boundaries, women, children, costs, and alternatives.
Exact location: Venter, HTS 74.4 a4854, pp. 1–4, 5–9, and 10–12
Open source ↗doctoral dissertation
Re-conceiving Seed, Re-defining Foreignness: Markers of Judean Identity in Ezra-Nehemiah and Trito-Isaiah
Hung-Chuan Lai
Union Presbyterian Seminary, 2014
Supports: Persian Yehud, genealogy, law, temple allegiance, identity markers, holy seed, women, land, and boundary construction.
Exact location: Lai dissertation, printed pp. 46–120, 172–194, and 226–254
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access article
Ethnicity and the expulsion of women in Ezra 9-10: A covenant perspective for Africa
Emmanuel Usue
Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif 53, Supplement 2, 2012
Supports: Ethnic-consciousness alternative, Torah and covenant controls, dissent, family costs, and contextual application critique.
Exact location: Usue, NGTT 53 Supplement 2, printed pp. 103–111
Open source ↗