What Does Ezra 10:3 Mean in the King James?
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 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 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.
“put away” 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.
“law” in this verse is torah. 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 shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto 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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