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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezra 10:14 - 10:14
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“Let then our rulers stand for the whole congregation, and let all who in all our cities have brought home strange wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders of each city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God be turned away from us, as long as this matter lasts.” There were so many cases to deal with, that the rulers, as the judicial authorities, must decide in this matter; and those who in all the cities of the land had transgressed, were to appear before these authorities, and submit their individual cases to their jurisdiction. The choice of the verb יַעַמְדוּ, to stand or set oneself to discharge some business, here therefore to give judgment, is occasioned by the preceding לַעֲמֹוד. The whole community had assembled according to the proclamation, and was standing there for the purpose of bringing the matter to a close. This they were not, however, able to do, for the reasons stated Ezr 10:13; hence the princes, as rulers of the community, are to remain for the discharge of the business. לְכָל־הַקָּהָל is not a genitive dependent on שָׂרֵינוּ, and explanatory of the suffix of this word-our, viz., the whole congregation's, princes (Bertheau) - an unnatural and superfluous elucidation; for if the whole congregation say: our princes, it is self-evident that not the princes of a section or portion of the people, but of the whole congregation, must be intended. לְכָל־הַקָּהָל is the object of יַעַמְדוּ: let them stand for the whole congregation (לְ עָמַד like לְ קוּם, Psa 94:16), not instead of, but for the good of the congregation, and transact its business. In our cities, i.e., including the capital, for there is here no contrast between Jerusalem and the other cities. The article to הַהֹשִׁיב stands, as is often the case, for the relative אֲשֶׁר, e.g., Ezr 10:17, Ezr 8:25. מְזֻמָּנִים עִתִּים, appointed times, stated terms, used only here and in Neh 10:35; Neh 13:31. זִמֵּן is a Chaldaistic expression. With the accused were to come the elders and judges of every city, to furnish the necessary explanations and evidence. לְהָשִׁיב עַד, until the turning away of the fierceness of the wrath (לְ עַד according to the later usage of the language instead of עַד only, comp. Ewald, §315, a, not instead of לְ only, as Bertheau seeks, by incorrectly interpreted passages, to prove). The meaning is: until the fierce wrath of God concerning these marriages shall be turned away, by their dissolution and the dismissal of the strange women from the congregation. The last words, הַזֶּה לַדָּבָר עַד, offer some difficulty. De Wette and Bertheau translate them: on account of this matter, which לְ עַד can by no means signify. We regard לְ עַד = עַד of the older language, in the sense of during, like 2Ki 9:22, according to which the meaning is: as long as this thing lasts; but we connect these words, not, as J. H. Michaelis, with the immediately preceding clause: the wrath which is fierce during this matter (quae usque, i.e., constanter ardet), but take them as more exactly defining the leading idea of the verse: the princes are to stand and judge the guilty as long as this matter lasts, so that הַזֶּה לַדָּבָר עַד is co-ordinate with וגו לְהָשִׁיב עַד.