Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezra 10:17 - 10:17

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezra 10:17 - 10:17


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And they made an end with all, with respect to the men who had brought home strange wives. בַּכֹּל (with the article) cannot be so connected with אֲנָשִׁים, from which it is separated by the accentuation of the latter, as to admit of the repetition, as by older expositors, of the preposition בְּ before אֲנָשִׁים: with all, namely, with the men. Still less can בַּכֹּל, as Bertheau thinks, be taken in the sense of “in every place,” and אֲנָשִׁים connected as an accusative with וַיְכַלּוּ: they finished in every place the men (!); for כִּלָּה with an accusative of the person signifies to annihilate, to make an end of, while בְ כִּלָּה means to finish, to make an end with, comp. Gen 44:12. If, as the accentuation requires, we take בַּכֹּל independently, אֲנָשִׁים can only be an accusative of more exact definition: in respect of the men (אֲנָשִׁים being without the article, because words which define it follow). As this gives a suitable meaning, it seems unnecessary to alter the punctuation and read בְּכָל־אֲנָשִׁים, or with Ewald, §290, c, note 1, to regard אֲנָשִׁים בַּכֹּל as a singular combination. - Till the first day of the first month (of the next year), therefore in three months, their sittings having begun, according to Ezr 10:13, on the first day of the tenth month. - The account of this transaction closes with -

The list of the men who had taken strange wives, vv. 18-44; among whom were priests (Ezr 10:18-22), Levites (Ezr 10:23, Ezr 10:24), and Israelites, i.e., laymen (vv. 25-43).