What Does Ezra 10:11 Mean in the King James?
Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Here confession is something offered to God, and the verse makes it inseparable from the severe act of separation that follows.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you in a severe sequence: confess to the LORD God of your fathers, do his pleasure, and separate from the people of the land and the strange wives. It joins acknowledgment to enacted obedience, with the demanded boundary reaching directly into marriage and community. The rupture remains visible in the verse’s own words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Confession can remain a private admission with no consequence.
THE ROOT
תּוֹדָה
todah
GROWS FROM
ידה
y-d-h
acknowledge, confess, give thanks
The Hebrew phrase is literally “give” confession, using a noun that can also mean thanksgiving and praise. That places confession within the language of acknowledgment offered to the LORD; the verse immediately turns from that offering to action.
ALSO GROWS
yadah: confess, praise, give thanks
יָדָה
The verb carries the same range of acknowledgment and praise that the noun brings into Ezra’s command.
Yehudah: Judah; a name associated with praise
יְהוּדָה
The name shares the י־ד־ה consonants and preserves the praise side of this word family alongside confession.
הִבָּדְלוּ
hibbadlu
GROWS FROM
בדל
b-d-l
divide, separate, distinguish
“separate yourselves” in this verse is hibbadlu. The verb takes a reflexive form: the people are told to separate themselves. Its family expresses both the act of dividing and the making of a distinction, so the verse names a boundary that reaches into communal and marital bonds.
ALSO GROWS
badal: divide, separate
בָּדַל
This verb is the root’s basic act of creating a division, making the command’s boundary explicit.
mavdil: one who separates or distinguishes
מַבְדִּיל
This form shows the same root can name the agent who makes a distinction, illuminating the deliberate boundary in the command.
THE PATTERN
Scriptural confession does not remain an inward admission; it opens into disclosure or action.
And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.THE THREAD
And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.Ezra’s “make confession” and Joshua’s “make confession” use the same Hebrew noun for confession and thanksgiving. Joshua then joins that acknowledgment to telling what was done, while Ezra’s verse moves from confession into action and separation.
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