Ezra 10:42

Study note

Setting — Ezra records this entry during the post-exilic assembly where the community confesses intermarriage and commits to covenant separation. The moment captures the public enumeration of men who agreed to put away their foreign wives.

The words — The text supplies three proper names: שַׁלּוּם (sha.Lum), meaning "recompense" or "restored"; אֲמַרְיָה ('a.mar.Yah), meaning "Yahweh has said"; and יוֹסֵף (yo.Sef), meaning "he will add." These function strictly as identifiers within a genealogical register.

The thread — This verse operates as a catalog entry within Ezra 10’s inventory of men who divorced foreign wives to restore covenant boundaries. The same structural pattern of listing names appears in Ezra 10:41–43 and parallels the temple-worker registers in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7.

Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that covenant restoration was executed through specific, recorded actions rather than general declarations. It demands attention to the named individuals who publicly submitted to the community’s repentance.

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.