Sinning in the Rain: Did Ezra Win or Lose the Fight on Foreign Wives?
Ezra 10:9-14
This post is long, containing both the seeds of Jewish separatism as well as astounding evidence of the power of popular dissent.
They were weeping in Jerusalem in those dramatic winter days - rain mixed with tears on the shivering people’s faces. There are no records of the women’s final words or their children’s questions when they were forced to leave their homes, away from husbands and fathers for the sin of being ‘foreign’ or ‘mixed’.
When those who were exiled begin to exile their own, and when walls are built as social shelter by those who saw their own walls shatter - that’s when societies shift - and not for the better.
What we are reading in these final chapters of Ezra is difficult to process. These chapters include an indication of a serious shift in attitude towards foreigners that still manifests in the ways many in the Jewish world define identity. We read these words to know where we are coming from, what we inherited, and how to understand and possibly challenge these ideological stances as we listen to the voices of protest and wise opposition - also present in these texts. it is astounding to decipher opposing ideologies and strategies play out in these pages - and in their contemporary manifestations.
So here's what's happening in the final chapter of Ezra - this dramatic showman, using religious rituals to convey critical communications and change the community according to his worldview.
Soon after his arrival in Jerusalem during the summer month of Av, Ezra the Scribe, sent by the king to restore order and establish laws, is informed that many of the men, including those of the elite, are married to foreign women.
As we saw previously - this was likely the norm back in Babylon as well. But as he is instructed to create a cohesive community and a strong nation he lifts up laws that forbid marriage with non-Judeans, expands the definition, and declares a war on this reality. He begins by creating a public spectacle protest in Jerusalem’s main square - rips his clothes, weeps and fasts, in mourning for the torn fabric of the nation.
In today’s chapter he takes this dramatic and problematic protest up a level - to a new pitch of action. What happens next is one of the most dramatic and heart wrenching scenes in the Bible.
But it’s actually not clear whether he won or lost this war.
The Book of Ezra ends with this 10th chapter - but with vague resolution. Did mixed-marriage families dissolve or not? How many so-called foreign wives were banished from Jerusalem with their children? Did the status quo change? Apparently not.
Either way -- Ezra’s new paradigm of racial separatism became a defining feature of Jewish identity - and is still part of our current debate and often divisive realities, spilling into brutal politics and the steep price of war.
Ezra was not just a religious leader with a sense for spectacle and drama. As a priest, even if never officiated in the temple, he must have learned about the public ceremonial sacrificial rites that were all about grand gestures that spell out life and death. He takes his case outside the temple, into the civic sphere, signaling that his authority extends beyond the temple and its priests.
Ezra instructs that all the men gather in Jerusalem for a special announcement. Refusal to attend is not an option and is punishable by confiscation of all property. The Judeans have three days to drop everything and show up in Jerusalem - in the middle of winter.
We can imagine it is not a joyful pilgrimage - at a season in which the hilltop city is at its coldest and least hospitable. What we read in the plain text, and between the lines, contains a remarkable testimony of the people’s response - wise use of popular power to protect both the religious duty as well as their families - a rare combination of protest and negotiations over key values and norms:
וַיִּקָּבְצ֣וּ כׇל־אַנְשֵֽׁי־יְהוּדָה֩ וּבִנְיָמִ֨ן ׀ יְרוּשָׁלַ֜͏ִם לִשְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת הַיָּמִ֗ים ה֛וּא חֹ֥דֶשׁ הַתְּשִׁיעִ֖י בְּעֶשְׂרִ֣ים בַּחֹ֑דֶשׁ וַיֵּשְׁב֣וּ כׇל־הָעָ֗ם בִּרְחוֹב֙ בֵּ֣ית הָאֱלֹהִ֔ים מַרְעִידִ֥ים עַל־הַדָּבָ֖ר וּמֵהַגְּשָׁמִֽים׃ וַיָּ֨קׇם עֶזְרָ֤א הַכֹּהֵן֙ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֔ם אַתֶּ֣ם מְעַלְתֶּ֔ם וַתֹּשִׁ֖יבוּ נָשִׁ֣ים נׇכְרִיּ֑וֹת לְהוֹסִ֖יף עַל־אַשְׁמַ֥ת יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ וְעַתָּ֗ה תְּנ֥וּ תוֹדָ֛ה לַיהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵֽי־אֲבֹתֵיכֶ֖ם וַעֲשׂ֣וּ רְצוֹנ֑וֹ וְהִבָּֽדְלוּ֙ מֵעַמֵּ֣י הָאָ֔רֶץ וּמִן־הַנָּשִׁ֖ים הַנׇּכְרִיּֽוֹת׃ וַיַּֽעֲנ֧וּ כׇֽל־הַקָּהָ֛ל וַיֹּאמְר֖וּ ק֣וֹל גָּד֑וֹל כֵּ֛ן כִּדְבָרְךָ֥ עָלֵ֖ינוּ לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃
אֲבָ֞ל הָעָ֥ם רָב֙ וְהָעֵ֣ת גְּשָׁמִ֔ים וְאֵ֥ין כֹּ֖חַ לַעֲמ֣וֹד בַּח֑וּץ וְהַמְּלָאכָ֗ה לֹֽא־לְי֤וֹם אֶחָד֙ וְלֹ֣א לִשְׁנַ֔יִם כִּֽי־הִרְבִּ֥ינוּ לִפְשֹׁ֖עַ בַּדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּֽה׃
יַֽעַמְדוּ־נָ֣א שָׂ֠רֵ֠ינוּ לְֽכׇל־הַקָּהָ֞ל וְכֹ֣ל ׀ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בֶּעָרֵ֗ינוּ הַהֹשִׁ֞יב נָשִׁ֤ים נׇכְרִיּוֹת֙ יָבֹא֙ לְעִתִּ֣ים מְזֻמָּנִ֔ים וְעִמָּהֶ֛ם זִקְנֵי־עִ֥יר וָעִ֖יר וְשֹׁפְטֶ֑יהָ עַ֠ד לְהָשִׁ֞יב חֲר֤וֹן אַף־אֱלֹהֵ֙ינוּ֙ מִמֶּ֔נּוּ עַ֖ד לַדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּֽה׃
All the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem within three days; it was the ninth month, the twentieth of the month. All the people sat in the square in front of the House of God, trembling on account of the event and because of the rains.
Then Ezra the priest got up and said to them, “You have trespassed by bringing home foreign women, thus aggravating the guilt of Israel.
So now, make confession to YHWH, God of your fathers, and do His will, and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women.”
The entire congregation responded in a loud voice, “We must surely do just as you say.
However, many people are involved, and it is the rainy season; it is not possible to remain out in the open, nor is this the work of a day or two, because we have transgressed extensively in this matter.
Let our officers remain on behalf of the entire congregation, and all our townspeople who have brought home foreign women shall appear before them at scheduled times, together with the elders and judges of each town, in order to avert the burning anger of our God from us on this account.”
Ezra 10:9-14
Ezra must have been a shrewd politician. This memorable street scene that just may have played out as planned - the people’s response to his decree was to create a committee. And like all committees - some gets done, but some gets lost.
This process, whether Ezra planned for it or not, simultaneously satisfies the purist and extremist voices among the people - as well as the more flexible and practical ones.
Ezra’s demand for the separation of families, and the means by which he orders the people to attend the gathering and obey the law reeks of authoritarianism. It is patriarchy at its worst.
The people’s response, blaming the weather, accepting the charges, but calling for a process of examination - is not a protest exactly but it does work against the original plan. Whoever wrote this text wanted us to pay attention to both positions.
The committee gathers and completes its work in three months.
Lists of mixed families are made and names are named. 113 households total.
Those include the High Priest’s family and many other of the Judean elite. Women’s names are not mentioned.
What’s also mentioned is anything beyond decorations. Were these women and children separated from their families? Or did life continue as is, with some new system slowly starting to be enforced?
We don't know.
Hagit Hartuv, an Israeli author and educator reflects on this chapter’s lasting meaning:
“And for a moment, a suspicion creeps in that this is a well-Ezra must have been a shrewd politician. This memorable street scene that just may have played out as planned - the people’s response to his decree was to create a committee. And like all committees - some gets done, but some gets lost.
This process, whether Ezra planned for it or not, simultaneously satisfies the purist and extremist voices among the people - as well as the more flexible and practical ones.
Ezra’s demand for the separation of families, and the means by which he orders the people to attend the gathering and obey the law reeks of authoritarianism. It is patriarchy at its worst.
The people’s response, blaming the weather, accepting the charges, but calling for a process of examination - is not a protest exactly but it does work against the original plan. Whoever wrote this text wanted us to pay attention to both positions.
The committee gathers and completes its work in three months.
Lists of mixed families are made and names are named. 113 households total.
Those include the High Priest’s family and many other of the Judean elite. Women’s names are not mentioned.
What’s also mentioned is anything beyond decorations. Were these women and children separated from their families? Or did life continue as is, with some new system slowly starting to be enforced?
We don't know.
Hagit Hartuv, an Israeli author and educator reflects on this chapter’s lasting meaning:
“And for a moment, a suspicion creeps in that this is a well-orchestrated performance — with the right set design, rains and wrath, the people receive a dramatic rebuke over the foreign women and are asked to expel them. But then the people - someone must have started - suggested transferring the matter to regional committees, because, after all, the weather — and I can almost see how they nearly managed to have their cake and eat it too: to deliver a dramatic scolding to everyone and continue living with the families they had built.
Then comes the long list — and it's unclear whether its purpose is to shame all those who forgot God’s commandments, or perhaps just the opposite: to point out the obvious — that everyone, absolutely everyone, had married foreign women.
And maybe Ezra understood that one must maintain the right balance between earth and heaven — between human covenants of love and family that take place here on earth, between neighbors, regardless of religion or race, and the loyalty to the eternal covenant with the one mysterious God.
I suppose Ezra’s dramatic struggle succeeded in shaping Jewish consciousness from his generation onward. Most of us have subordinated our covenants of the heart to the eternal covenant — and perhaps that’s a good thing, for it made us into an eternal people.
But try to imagine what the Jewish journey might have looked like if things had gone differently.”
Hartuv’s invitation to imagine an alternative history is compelling. But we don’t have to try too hard. In today’s Jewish world, there is a clear line between those who adhere to Ezra’s definition of Jewish - and those, like the people in the streets of Jerusalem, those who are named in this chapter and the many who are not -- who prefer a more fluid and flexible sense of belonging to the Jewish people.
The Book of Ezra does not end with any resolution. This story is not over.
We shift to the next part of the book - meeting Nehemiah, with his 12 chapters that pick up where Ezra left off. Whether they knew each other or not - the Restoration of Zion project continues and will deliver one of the most major chapters in this entire book - the day on which the Bible was publicly born.
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