Bible Strands
Ezra 10:7
And a proclamation was issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem that all the exiles should gather at Jerusalem.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Following Ezra’s withdrawal and three-day fast over the exiles’ unfaithfulness, the community leadership issues a directive to all exiles in Judah and Jerusalem. The text states that a proclamation was sent out ordering every exile to assemble in Jerusalem.
The words — The Hebrew uses קֹל (kol), literally “a voice” or “proclamation,” and לְהִקָּבֵץ (lehiqqāḇeṣ), meaning “to assemble.” These terms frame the directive as an official summons requiring physical gathering.
The thread — This pattern of official summons echoes the decree circulated from Beersheba to Dan in 2 Chronicles 30:5 and recalls the royal proclamation that first enabled the return in Ezra 1:1. Both references show coordinated calls to gather preceding covenant renewal.
Why it lands — The verse demands immediate compliance with a community directive, treating geographic gathering as the necessary first step for addressing corporate failure. It asks the reader to recognize that collective repentance begins with a concrete, localized assembly.
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
And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem;
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 30:5 So they established a decree to circulate a proclamation throughout Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come to keep the Passover of the LORD, the God of Israel, in Jerusalem. For they had not observed it in great numbers as prescribed.
- Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows: