What Does Ezra 10:3 Mean?
Now therefore let us cut a covenant with our God to bring out all the wives, and those born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those who tremble at the command of our God, and let it be done according to the instruction.
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
Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.THE KEY
The covenant is called a cutting, and its stated fulfillment here is to bring all the wives and their children out of the household.
THE MEANING
Here a covenant with God takes the form of bringing out all the wives and the children born to them. The decision reaches spouses and children as well as the people making it, and is placed under counsel, commandment, and Torah (תּוֹרָה, torah: instruction). The verse leaves this removal in view as the stated consequence of the community’s commitment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A decision made in God’s name affects only its authors: this verse explicitly names the wives and children as those to be sent out.
THE ROOT
נִכְרָת־בְּרִית
nikhrat berit
GROWS FROM
כרת
karat
Cut, cut off; in the covenant phrase, cut a covenant.
The phrase translated ‘make a covenant’ uses כרת (karat, cut) in the covenant idiom ‘cut a covenant.’ Here that formula stands beside a command to bring wives and children out, making the language of severance audible alongside the removal.
ALSO GROWS
karat: Cut, cut down, or cut off.
כָּרַת
This is the root verb behind the covenant phrase in the verse.
keritut: A certificate of divorce; dismissal.
כְּרִיתֻת
This cut-root also appears in the biblical term for a certificate of divorce, bringing marital severance into its wider vocabulary; Ezra’s own verb for the removal is הוֹצִיא (hotsi, bring out).
לְהוֹצִיא
lehotsi
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
Go out, come forth; in the causative form, cause to go out or bring out.
“bring out” in this verse is lehotsi. The verb carries the concrete sense of bringing out or causing to go out. Its grammar places both the wives and the children born to them among those to be brought out, keeping the scale of the removal in view.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: Go out, come forth.
יָצָא
This is the basic movement from which the verse’s causative ‘bring out’ form grows.
motsa: An issue, outlet, or place of departure.
מוֹצָא
The same root can name what comes out or a way out; here the causative form names people being made to go out.
hotsi: Cause to go out, bring out.
הוֹצִיא
This is the verb used for the verse’s order to put away the wives and children.
תּוֹרָה
torah
GROWS FROM
ירה
yarah
Point or direct; in a derived form, teach or instruct.
The closing phrase invokes תּוֹרָה (torah, instruction) as the measure by which the proposed action is to be carried out. Its root also carries the sense of directing or teaching, so the appeal presents the removal as an action submitted to guidance.
ALSO GROWS
yarah: Point, direct, teach; also shoot.
יָרָה
Its directing and teaching senses illuminate the instruction named at the end of the verse.
torah: Instruction, teaching, guidance.
תּוֹרָה
This is the word rendered ‘law’ in the verse, framing the proposed action as proceeding according to instruction.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes allegiance to God bear directly on household bonds, presenting both separation and preservation as consequential responses.
Neither shall you marry into them. Your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son. For they will turn your son aside from walking after me, so that he serves other gods. Then the burning of the LORD's anger will flare against you and wipe you out swiftly.For I came to split a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies will be those of his house.But to the rest I speak, not the Lord. If any brother has a wife who is among those who do not trust, and she is pleased to settle in the house with him, let him not let her go. And if a woman has a husband who does not trust, and he is content to settle in the house with her, let her not let him go. For the husband who does not trust has been set apart through the wife, and the wife who does not trust has been set apart through the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are set apart.THE THREAD
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.Genesis uses the same כרת (karat, cut) root in the covenant phrase rendered ‘made a covenant.’ In Ezra, that cut-covenant formula stands beside the command to bring wives and children out, making the resonance of severance audible in the verse’s own language.
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