What Does Ezra 10:16 Mean?
And the children of the uncovering did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, each of them by name, were separated, and sat down on the first day of the tenth month to search out the word.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.THE KEY
The root ב־ד־ל (badal, separate or distinguish) marks Ezra and the named household heads as a distinct body set apart to examine the matter.
THE MEANING
A grave communal question is given a named body of inquiry: Ezra and household heads are set apart, sit down, and investigate. The surrounding passage identifies the matter as sending away foreign wives and children, so family rupture is at stake. Examination gives the issue attention; it does not make that cost vanish.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The separated group in this sentence is Ezra and the named household heads; the surrounding passage separately identifies wives and children as those to be sent away.
THE ROOT
וַיִּבָּדְלוּ
wayyibbadelu
GROWS FROM
בדל
To separate, divide, or distinguish; in this form, to be set apart.
“separated” in this verse is wayyibbadelu. The root holds separation and distinction together. Here the men are distinguished as a group, and the next clause shows the purpose: they sit down to investigate.
ALSO GROWS
hivdil: To separate or distinguish.
הִבְדִּיל
Genesis 1:4 uses this verb for distinguishing light from darkness; here, the named group is distinguished for a particular inquiry.
nivdal: Set apart; distinct.
נִבְדָּל
This branch keeps separation connected to a defined role, illuminating the men set apart to examine the matter.
לִדְרוֹשׁ
lidrosh
GROWS FROM
דרש
To seek, inquire, or pursue an answer.
“search out” in this verse is lidrosh. The word carries active seeking, not a passing look. The group sits down to pursue the matter, giving the inquiry time and attention.
ALSO GROWS
derishah: Inquiry or investigation.
דְּרִישָׁה
This noun keeps the verse’s examination connected to deliberate seeking.
midrash: Exposition or interpretive study.
מִדְרָשׁ
This branch shows the root extending from seeking into sustained interpretation of what is being examined.
הַדָּבָר
ha-davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; the noun can mean a word, thing, or matter.
English ‘matter’ sounds separate from speech, while davar can name both a word and a thing. The inquiry concerns a concrete affair, not an abstraction detached from what has been said or done.
ALSO GROWS
devarim: Words, things, or matters.
דְּבָרִים
This plural preserves the word-and-thing range of the matter being examined.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The spoken branch shows the same root joining speech with the matter at hand.
THE PATTERN
A grave claim is tested through deliberate inquiry before it is treated as settled.
Then you shall search it out, and dig, and ask well; and, behold, if it is truth, and the thing set firm, that such abomination is done among you;These were of nobler birth than those in Thessalonica, who received the word with all eagerness of heart, and sifted the writings daily, whether these things held so.THE THREAD
Then you shall search it out, and dig, and ask well; and, behold, if it is truth, and the thing set firm, that such abomination is done among you;The command ‘enquire’ uses a form of דָּרַשׁ (darash, seek or inquire), the same root behind Ezra’s ‘to examine.’ One verse calls for a claim to be pursued until its truth is tested; the other shows a named group sitting down to do that work.
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