Ezra 10:38

Study note

Setting — Ezra records a census of Israelite men who had married foreign women, listing them by clan during the post-exilic covenant renewal. The narrator pauses at the Binnui family line to identify one specific individual before continuing the roll call.

The words — בִנּוּי (Binnui) denotes the clan head, while שִׁמְעִי (Shimei) identifies a specific descendant. These proper names function as administrative markers within a genealogical ledger.

The thread — This naming pattern repeats in parallel post-exilic records where Ezra and Nehemiah catalog returning exiles and temple workers. The same clan names appear in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 10 as part of the community’s structural restoration.

Why it lands — The text demands that readers see individual names as integral to corporate covenant fidelity. It requires acknowledging that personal identity is bound to communal obedience, not isolated from it.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.