Ezra and the Putting Away of Foreign Wives

In short

In Deut 7:1-6, God commands the Jews to not marry foreign women. In Ezra 9-10, Ezra learns that the people have done this anyway and some even had children, and Ezra commands the people to divorce those foreign wives.

Why it is important

God is very anti-divorce (Malachi 2:16, Mark 10:9). Yet it seems that God fully approves of the mass divorce in Ezra 10. How is that possible?

Main characters

• Ezra, a priest
• Jews who live in Judah after being in Exile
• Not any prophets! Just the people and the Scriptures.

What is in this story (Ezra 9-10)

Ezra just moved there and as soon as his entourage gets settled, someone comes up to him.

1. Hey Ezra, the people from the first wave of returned exiles have married foreign women over the last six decades (9:1-2)
2. Ezra is “appalled” (9:3-4)
3. Ezra prays (9:5-15), summarizing the history, and begs God not to destroy the only people he has left (9:14) even though Ezra fully knows they should be killed (9:13)
4. Meanwhile, an enormous crowd gathers (10:1)
5. Someone says, Hey Ezra; let’s “put away all these wives and their children” (10:2-3)
6. They assemble; Ezra lays out the plan; everyone agrees (10:9-12)
7. It took three months, but eventually everyone has complied (10:16-17)
8. There is a list of the sinners (10:18-43)
9. The author wants to reiterate: “and some of the women had even borne children” (10:44). Those are the last words of the whole book.

Theology and doctrine

This is a heavy subject. I taught a class on this in 2019 (see link below*). But in brief:

• Ruth and Rahab were foreign women that not only married Jewish men, but were praised for their faith and are both in the ancestry of Jesus Christ!
• The idea seems to be “don’t marry foreign women if they are still pagans” This isn’t about skin color; it’s about beliefs.
• This was Old Testament and is not binding on us today
• In the New Testament, it is NOT a sin to be married to a non-Christian**, but it IS a sin to divorce for that reason (1Co 7:12-14)
• HOWEVER, there is still sinful marriage in the New Testament. For example, it is sin to marry a divorced person (Matthew 5:32, 19:9; Mark 10:11-12)
• What should someone do if they are in a sinful marriage today – a marriage that should never have happened and can never be right in the eyes of God?
• I think the example in Ezra is relevant in that case: the invalid marriage should end. Even if there are children involved.

ℹ Footnotes

* Class I taught on Ezra 9-10: https://strivingforthefaith.org/sermons/putting-away-foreign-wives-class-on-ezra-9-and-10/ – There is a PDF there also.

** This, too is a deep subject. I’ll stand by my statement, “it is not a sin to BE married to a non-Christian” (to be in the state of marriage). BUT it seems to me that it CAN be a sin for a Christian to marry a non-Christian (the decision and act of marrying). Widows, for example, are counseled to “be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord” (1Co 7:39).