Bible Strands
Ezra 10:6
Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and walked to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. And while he stayed there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ezra acts alone after commanding the leading priests, Levites, and all Israel to swear an oath to address the exiles' unfaithfulness. He leaves the sanctuary area and goes to a private chamber following that public directive.
The words — וַ/יָּ֣קָם (va/i.Ya.kom) literally means "and he arose," marking Ezra’s physical departure from the temple precincts. לִשְׁכַּ֖ת (lish.Kat) denotes the specific "room" or chamber he enters to isolate himself.
The thread — This pattern of withdrawal and fasting for mourning appears in Deuteronomy 9:18, where Moses similarly abstains from food and water before the LORD. The chamber's association with Jehohanan son of Eliashib connects to the priestly lineage noted in Nehemiah 3:1 and Nehemiah 12:22.
Why it lands — The text requires acknowledging that corporate sin demands personal repentance and physical renunciation of comfort. It calls the reader to separate from distracting environments when confronting spiritual failure.
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.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came thither, he did eat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 9:18 Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger.
- Nehemiah 3:1 At the Sheep Gate, Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests began rebuilding. They dedicated it and installed its doors. After building as far as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel, they dedicated the wall.
- Nehemiah 12:22 In the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, during the reign of Darius the Persian, the heads of the families of the Levites and priests were recorded.
- John 4:31 Meanwhile the disciples urged Him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
- Exodus 34:28 So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
- Ezra 9:4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles, while I sat there in horror until the evening offering.
- Ezra 10:1 While Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and falling facedown before the house of God, a very large assembly of Israelites—men, women, and children—gathered around him, and the people wept bitterly as well.
- Nehemiah 3:20 Next to him, Baruch son of Zabbai diligently repaired another section, from the angle to the doorway of the house of Eliashib the high priest.
- Nehemiah 12:10 Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, Joiakim was the father of Eliashib, Eliashib was the father of Joiada,
- Nehemiah 13:5 and had prepared for Tobiah a large room where they had previously stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the temple articles, and the tithes of grain, new wine, and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests.