Ezra 10 · Verse 44

Ezra 10:44

All these had taken strange wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children.
Ezra 10:44, King James Version

Ezra 10:44 in other translations

BSBAll these men had married foreign women, and some of them had children by these wives.
WEBAll these had taken foreign wives. Some of them had wives by whom they had children.
ASVAll these had taken foreign wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had children.
YLTall these have taken strange women, and there are of them women--who adopt sons.
DARBYAll these had taken foreign wives; and there were among them wives who had had children.
BBEAll these had taken strange wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had offspring.
WebsterAll these had taken foreign wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children.

What does Ezra 10:44 mean?

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 44 Some of them had wives by whom they had children - This observation was probably intended to show that only a few of them had children; but it shows also how rigorously the law was put in execution. According to a passage in Justin Martyr's dialogue with Trypho, a Jew, Ezra offered a paschal lamb on this occasion, and addressed the people thus: "And Ezra said to the people, This passover is our Savior and our Refuge; and if ye will be persuaded of it, and let it enter into your hearts, that we are to humble ourselves to him in a sign, and afterwards shall believe in him, this place shall not be destroyed for ever, saith the Lord of Hosts: but if ye will not believe in him, nor hearken to his preaching, ye shall be a laughing-stock to the Gentiles." - Dial. cum Tryphone, sec. 72. This passage, Justin says, the Jews, through their enmity to Christ, blotted out of the book of Ezra. He charges them with cancelling several other places through the same spirit of enmity and opposition. In the Hebrew text this and the following book make but one, though sometimes Nehemiah is distinguished as the second book of Esdras. In the Masoretic enumeration of sections, etc., both books are conjoined. This may be seen at the end of Nehemiah. I can add nothing of importance to the character of Ezra, which has already been given so much in detail in the introduction to this book. Corrected, March, 1828. - A. Clarke.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Ezra 10:15-44

The best reformers can but do their endeavour; when the Redeemer himself shall come to Zion, he shall effectually turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And when sin is repented of and forsaken, God will forgive it; but the blood of Christ, our Sin-offering, is the only atonement which takes away our guilt. No seeming repentance or amendment will benefit those who reject Him, for self-dependence proves them still…

Read the full comment on Ezra 10:15-44 →

Ezra 10:44 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

כָּל\־kol-allH3605
אֵ֕לֶּה'E.lehtheseH428
נָשְׂאוּna.se.'uthey had takenH5375
נָשִׁ֣יםna.ShimwomenH802
נָכְרִיּ֑וֹתna.khe.ri.YotforeignH5237
וְיֵ֣שׁve.Yeshand thereH3426
מֵהֶ֣םme.Hem[were] some of <the> them
נָשִׁ֔יםna.ShimwivesH802
וַיָּשִׂ֖ימוּvai.ya.Si.muand they [masc] had madeH7760
בָּנִֽים\׃\ \פba.NimchildrenH1121

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Ezra 10:44

  • Proverbs 2:16

    To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

  • Ezra 10:3

    Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.

  • Proverbs 5:3

    For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

  • Proverbs 5:20

    And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
strange wives.
Pr 2:16; 5:3,20
and some of them.This observation was probably intended to shew that only a few of them had children, and also how rigorously the law was put in execution. According to a passage in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew, Ezra offered a paschal lamb on this occasion, and addressed the people thus: "And Ezra said to the people, This pass-over is our Saviour and our Refuge; and if ye will be persuaded of it, and let it enter into your hearts, that we are to humble to Him in a sign, and afterwards shall believe in Him, this place shall not be destroyed for ever, saith the Lord of hosts; but, if ye will not believe in Him, nor hearken to his preaching, ye shall be a laughing-stock to the Gentiles." This was probably a marginal note added by some early Christian. CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE BOOK OF EZRA. This book details the events of a very interesting period of the Sacred History, when, according to the decree of Providence, the Jewish people were to be delivered from their captivity, at the expiration of seventy years, and restored to the land of their fathers. This book informs us how the Divine goodness accomplished this most gracious design, and the movers and agents He employed on the occasion. Ezra was undoubtedly the chief agent under God in effecting this arduous work; and his zeal, piety, knowledge, and discretion, appear here in a most conspicuous point of view, and claim our utmost admiration. Descended from Seraiah, in a direct line from Aaron, he seems to have united all the requisites of a profound statesmen with the functions of the sacerdotal character. He appears to have made the Sacred Scriptures, during the captivity, his peculiar study; and, perhaps assisted by Nehemiah and the great synagogue, he corrected the errors which had crept into the Sacred Writings, through the negligence or mistake of transcribers; he collected all the books of which the Sacred Scriptures then consisted, disposed them in their proper order, and settled the canon of Scriptures for his time; he occasionally added, under the dictation of the Holy Spirit, whatever appeared necessary for the purpose of illustrating, completing, or connecting them; he substituted the modern for the ancient names of some places, which had now become obsolete; and transcribed the whole of the Scriptures into the Chaldee character. He is said to have lived to the age of 120 years, and, according to Josephus, was buried in Jerusalem; but the Jews believe he died in Persia, in a second journey to Artaxerxes, where his tomb is shown in the city of Zamusa. Though not styled a prophet, he wrote under the Divine Spirit; and the canonical authority of his book has never been disputed. It is written with all the spirit and fidelity that could be displayed by a writer of contemporary times; and those parts which chiefly consist of letters, decrees, etc., are written in Chaldee, because it seemed more suitable to the fidelity of a sacred historian to give these official documents, as they may be termed, in the original language, especially as the people, recently returned from the captivity, were familiar, and perhaps more conversant with the Chaldee, than with the Hebrew.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Ezra 10:43

    Of the sons of Nebo; Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, and Joel, Benaiah.

  • Ezra 10:44

    All these had taken strange wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children.

Read all of Ezra 10

Ezra 10:44 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909
Todos estos habían tomado mujeres extranjeras; y había mujeres de ellos que habían parido hijos.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885
Tous ceux-ci avaient pris des femmes étrangères, et il y en avait parmi eux dont les femmes avaient eu des enfants.
German
Elberfelder 1871
Alle diese hatten fremde Weiber genommen, und es gab unter ihnen Weiber, welche Kinder geboren hatten.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate
Omnes hi acceperant uxores alienigenas, et fuerunt ex eis mulieres, quæ pepererant filios.