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NASB | Ezra 10:3 "So now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ezra 10:3 "Therefore let us now make a covenant with our God to send away all the [foreign] wives and their children, in accordance with the advice of my lord and of those who tremble [in reverent obedience] at the commandment of our God; and let it be done in accordance with the Law. |
Subject: Ezra and Family Values? |
Bible Note: Love and War Thanks, Rowdy, for setting Ezra in a larger context. The passage about Solomon is particularly clear about the dangers they faced. To destroy an opponent in war seems like a different thing than splitting your own family. I agree that they are related: there is a concern for purity and total devotion to God --- and also that following God is costly. Part of my concern is about vows. To be married is to be committed for life --- and I assume they understood marriage in that way? To have children initiates a huge commitment to caring for them. These are relational covenants --- and, in Ezra, these covenants of love are broken by the deeper covenant with God. What are we to learn from this? In my worldliness, I would prefer the Bible to be different ---- to show families converting to the faith; to show a great covenanting ceremony where the people "Beyond the River" would turn to God in unity. Instead, the Bible is gritty and harsh... and unity is not happening, so the Jews salvage their battered identity as the "people of God" through separation. JRM. |