What Does Ezra 10:18 Mean in the King James?
And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken strange wives: namely, of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren; Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.
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
The word translated “strange” shares its Hebrew root with “recognize,” so the verse’s boundary is about who is marked as other.
THE MEANING
You see this breach located in a specific priestly family: four named men are among those found with foreign wives, and their father is Jeshua. The wording holds foreignness beside dwelling, the women are described as foreign, and the men as having settled them in household life.
THE ROOT
נָכְרִיּוֹת
nokhriyyot
GROWS FROM
נכר
n-k-r
Recognize or mark as distinct; in other forms, be or act as a stranger.
This root holds “recognize” beside “stranger”: in one form someone is identified, in another someone presents as foreign. English “strange” can sound like merely unusual, while here the word marks foreignness within a family.
ALSO GROWS
nokhri: Foreigner, stranger
נָכְרִי
This is the singular form behind the verse’s description of the wives as strange.
hitnaker: Act as a stranger, make oneself strange
הִתְנַכֵּר
Genesis 42:7 uses this form for Joseph’s deliberate strangeness toward brothers he recognizes.
hikkir: Recognize, identify
הִכִּיר
This branch makes the root’s link between foreignness and recognition visible.
הֹשִׁיבוּ
hoshivu
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-b
Sit, dwell, remain; in this form, cause to dwell or settle.
The verb translated “taken” carries the sense of making these women dwell or settle. The wording reaches beyond the choice of a spouse to the place these marriages now occupy in the household.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: Sit, dwell, remain
יָשַׁב
This is the basic action beneath the verse’s causative verb.
moshav: Dwelling, settlement, seat
מוֹשָׁב
This noun shows how the root extends from dwelling to an established place.
hoshiv: Cause to sit or dwell, settle
הוֹשִׁיב
This form gives the verse’s “taken” the added sense of establishing someone in a dwelling.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver or bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
Jeshua’s name carries the meaning of deliverance, from the root for delivering or bringing out. The verse places these named sons within that lineage while plainly recording the breach associated with them.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: Deliver, rescue
יָשַׁע
This verb is the root action carried in Jeshua’s name.
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun gives the name’s root meaning in a form that names the act itself.
hoshia: Delivered, rescued
הוֹשִׁיעַ
This form shows the root as deliverance received.
THE PATTERN
What is hidden within a community becomes visible, giving a formerly general breach a concrete shape.
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.THE THREAD
And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.Ezra’s נָכְרִיּוֹת (nokhriyyot, foreign women) and Joseph’s וַיִּתְנַכֵּר (vayyitnaker, made himself a stranger) come from נכר (n-k-r, recognize or mark as distinct). Genesis holds the root’s two sides together: Joseph knows his brothers while acting toward them as a stranger, giving Ezra’s label the same relational edge.
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