The Mystery of Ephraim

Ezra started the translation process, from the Sacred Text to Aramaic, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgements,” Ezra 7:10. This process gave birth to the Targum.

As a result, the Targum is an indispensable source of understanding the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning Jews from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand the Sacred Text in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us today from the Sacred Text.

The Targum is an Aramaic interpretation or paraphrased explanation of the Hebrew Scriptural text. These paraphrases or explanations were not meant to carry equal weight with the Word of God and initially it was forbidden to record them in writing, just to ensure that no one would equate them with the written Hebrew text.

But as time progressed, this rule was broken and the targumim were written down. In some instances where the wording in the Hebrew text are vague, the Targum offers an authoritative explanation. Today many rabbis and their followers have considered the targumim as authoritative and in some cases they put them as the Word of God.

Ezra 9

¹ Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. — one chief disorder is mentioned, that of the mixed marriages (Ezra 9:2), which the new lawgiver evidently regarded as fatal to the purity of the Divine service, and to the design of God in separating for a season this peculiar people;

— doing according to their abominations; marrying promiscuously whomsoever they liked and imitating them in some of their wicked practices, into which they have been drawn by their heathen practices. To do abominations is an expression which generally means worshipping of idols; but here it seems only to signify imitating the heathen in promiscuous marriages with any nation whatsoever, a practice which, however, would soon have led them to commit idolatry.

² For they have taken their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands; yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.” — for they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sorts; some that were widowers not only took wives to themselves of the above nations, either when they were of Babylon, where many of these nations also were, or rather since their return; but they took for their sons also; yea, some that had wives took heathen ones to them, see Malachi 2:13,

— so that the holy seed; such as the Lord had separated from other nations, chosen them to be an holy people above all others, and devoted them to his service and worship: have mingled themselves with the people of those lands; before mentioned by marrying with them:

— yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass; they were the first that went into it, were ringleaders of it, who should by their authority and example have restrained others; or they were in this first trespass; which was the first gross and capital one the people fell into after their return from the captivity.

³ And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down stunned. — when Ezra heard this thing, he rent his garment and mantle; both his inner and upper garment. This was a token, not only of his very great grief and sorrow, but of his sense of God’s displeasure at their conduct. For the Jews were wont to rend their clothes, when they apprehended God to be highly offended;

— and plucked off the hair of his head and of his beard; this was still a higher sign of exceeding great grief. For, in ordinary sorrow, they only neglected their hair, and let it hang down scattered in a careless manner; but this was used in bitter lamentations;

— and sat down astonied; through grief and shame at their sin, that they should be so ungrateful to God, who had so lately delivered them from captivity; and through an apprehension of some great and dreadful judgement befalling them, because of so open a violation of the divine law, the transgression of which had formerly proved their ruin.

⁴ Then were assembled unto me every one who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those who had been carried away; and I sat dismayed until the evening sacrifice. — everyone that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, that is, those who stood in awe of God and of his word and feared to violate his commands; and trembled for fear of God’s judgments upon them, and upon the whole land for their sakes, as the following words imply. Compare Isaiah 66:2,

— because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; into Babylon, and were now returned, and which was an aggravation of their transgression:

— and Ezra sat astonished until the evening sacrifice: or until the ninth hour which was about oround three o’clock in the afternoon, at which time the evening sacrifice was offered; perhaps it was in the morning when Ezra first received his information from the princes.

⁵ And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God, — here is where to get from the Orthodoxy the meaning of evening, from Exodus 29:41 (ben ha’arbayim): “And the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord,” Exodus 29:41

— in Exodus 12:6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening (ben ha’arbayim).

— Rashi comments concerning even/evening in most English Bibles but is “afternoon”

— here is his (by Rashi) explanation quoted besides the Chabad Bible Exodus 12:6 And you shall keep it for inspection until the fourteenth day of this month, and the entire congregation of the community of Israel shall slaughter it in the afternoon:

in the afternoon: Heb. בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם From six hours [after sunrise] and onward is called בֵּין הָעַרְבַּיִם, literally, between the two evenings, for the sun is inclined toward the place where it sets to become darkened. It seems to me that the expression בֵּין הָעַרְבַּיִם denotes those hours between the darkening of the day and the darkening of the night. The darkening of the day is at the beginning of the seventh hour, when the shadows of evening decline, and the darkening of the night at the beginning of the night. עֶרֶב is an expression of evening and darkness. — [from Mechilta]

⁶ and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. — and said, O my God; here begins the prayer of Ezra, and that with faith in God as covenant God, even when he was about to make confession of sin, and repentance for it; that prayer is right which is put up in faith, and that repentance genuine which is accompanied with faith, and flows from it:

— Ezra’s prayer, as a confession of national sin, should be compared with the prayer of the Levites (Nehemiah 9:6-38), but more especially with the prayer of Daniel (Daniel 9:4-19). As in the confession of Daniel, the personality of the speaker is merged in that of the nation, The sin of the race no less than its shame and its punishment is acknowledged in the ‘we’, ‘our’, and ‘us’. The self-abnegation and love of Ezra as of Moses (Exodus 32:32), accept the obligations of nationality as the source of guilt as well as on privilege to the individual.

— the general plan of the confession resembles that of Daniel. It consists of (1) general confession, Ezra 9:6 (cf. Daniel 9:4-6), (2) the sins of former time, Ezra 9:7 (Daniel 9:7-8); (3) God’s mercy and goodness, Ezra 9:7-8 (Daniel 9:9); (4) Israel’s sin in the face of the Divine warning, Ezra 9:10-12 (Daniel 9:10-14); (5) the fresh guilt and final appeal, Ezra 9:13-15 (Daniel 9:15-19).

⁷ Since the days of our fathers we have been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. — since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; the sins they were guilty of had been long continued in, which was an aggravation of them:

— and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands; the ten tribes and their king into the hand of the king of Assyria, the kings of Judah, Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah, into the hands of the king of Babylon, with the priests and people:

— to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil; some were slain with the sword, others carried captive, and the houses of them all plundered and spoiled:

— and to confusion of face, as it is this day; being filled with shame when they reflected on their sins, the cause of those evils; and besides, the captivity of the ten tribes continued, and of many others, which exposed them to shame among their neighbours.

⁸ And now for a little space grace hath been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a constant and sure abode in His holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. — the “little space” was above 60 years, counting from the second year of Darius Ezra 4:24, or about 80 years, counting from the first year of Cyrus Ezra 1:1. This does not seem to Ezra much in the “lifetime” of a nation;

— a remnant to escape; rather “a remnant that has escaped.” The “remnant” is the new community that has returned from the captivity.

⁹ For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving to set up the house of our God and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. — for we were bondmen; for we are bondmen. Ezra explains his words ‘in our bondage’. The bondage hadn’t gone past. The Jews were still bondmen then, in servitude to the king of Persia.

¹⁰ “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Thy commandments, — for we have forsaken thy commandments: particularly those which related to marriages with people of other nations. Q. Were the Jewish males to be circumcised too?

¹¹ which Thou hast commanded by Thy servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. — the land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land; these unclean and corrupt character of the surrounding nations were not given the Law of God, and those given, like the Samaritans, had perverted the Law with different interpretations; hence they were designate with special character of their “filthiness” and “abominations.”

¹² Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever, that ye may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever.’ — now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons; that is, in marriage, see Deuteronomy 7:3, where the prohibition is expressed in the same language;

— that ye may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever; that they might be strengthened and established in the land into which they were brought and enjoy all the good things it produced and leave their children in the possession of it.

¹³ And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass, seeing that Thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this, — and after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass; as famine, sword, pestilence and captivity, for their idolatries and other heinous sins:

— seeing that our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve; for they deserved eternal punishment, whereas it was temporal punishment that was inflicted, and this moderate, and now stopped; or thou hast refrained thyself from exacting of us all our sins, and hast exacted of us beneath our sins (or less than they deserve), and hast not taken vengeance on us according to all our sins.

¹⁴ should we again break Thy commandments and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? Wouldest not Thou be angry with us until Thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? — should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? – that are guilty of abominable idolatries and all uncleanness:

— wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us; it might be justly expected: so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? any left or suffered to escape the wrath of but all consumed by it.

¹⁵ O Lord God of Israel, Thou art righteous, for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day. Behold, we are before Thee in our trespasses, for we cannot stand before Thee because of this.” — O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous; and would appear to be so, should Israel be entirely cut off, and utterly consumed for their iniquities:

— for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day; that they remained yet escaped out of captivity and escaped the wrath and vengeance of God, was not owing to any deserts of theirs but to the grace and mercy of God, who had not stirred up all his wrath, as their sins deserved:

— behold, we are before thee in our trespasses; to do with us as seems good in thy sight; we have nothing to plead on our behalf, but cast ourselves at thy feet, if so be unmerited favour may be shown us:

— for we cannot stand before thee because of this; this evil of contracting affinity with the nations; we cannot defend ourselves; we cannot plead ignorance of the divine commands; we have nothing to say for ourselves why judgement should not be passed upon us; we leave ourselves in thine hands, and at thy mercy.

Ezra 10

¹ Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children; for the people wept very sorely. — now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping; had confessed the sins of the people in prayer and supplication, with many tears: and casting himself down before the house of God; in the outward court before the temple, his face turned towards it, where he lay prostrate:

— there assembled to him out of Israel a very great congregation of men, and women and children; it was quickly spread abroad, both in Jerusalem and places adjacent, that such a great man, a commissioner from the king of Persia, and a priest of the Jews, was in the utmost distress, rending his garments, and plucking off his hair, and was crying and praying in a vehement manner; which brought a great concourse of people, who concluded some great sins were committed, and sore judgments were coming upon them:

— for the people wept very sore; being affected with his confessions, cries, and tears, and fearing wrath would come upon them for their sins.

² And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, “We have trespassed against our God, and have taken foreign wives of the people of the land. Yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.

³ 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 who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. — according to the counsel of my Lord; either of Ezra, whom he honours with this title, being a ruler under the king of Persia; or of the Lord God, according to his will declared in his words, which is his counsel:

— and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; feared to break it and dreaded the effect of such a breach; and who no doubt would follow the counsel of the Lord and join in their advice to act according to the proposal made:

⁴ Arise, for this matter belongeth unto thee; we also will be with thee. Be of good courage, and do it.” — arise, for this matter belongeth unto thee; who hast perfect knowledge of the law and full power from the king of Persia to see every thing done according to it; and who hast most skill to manage this matter. We also will be with thee: be of good courage.

⁵ Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel to swear that they should do according to this word. And they swore. — then arose Ezra and made the chief priests, to swear; he admonished them of their duty in the name of God and then persuaded them to take a solemn oath, which they did, to put away their strange wives.

⁶ Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. And when he came thither, he ate no bread nor drank water, for he mourned because of the transgression of those who had been carried away. — at a private council of the princes and elders held there, under the presidency of Ezra, it was resolved to enter into a general covenant to put away their foreign wives and children; that a proclamation should be made for all who had returned from Babylon to repair within three days to Jerusalem, under pain of excommunication and confiscation of their property.

⁷ And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem, — throughout Judah and Jerusalem, unto all the children of the captivity; who were returned from it: that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem; within a time after mentioned.

⁸ and that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation of those who had been carried away. — and that whosoever would not come within three days; this was the space of time allowed, and which was decided upon for the quick dispatch of this affair to prevent any schemes that might be formed to obstruct it and lest those who had agreed to it and promised to assist in it should repent and go from their word:

— according to the counsel of the princes and of the elders; for though Ezra had a commission at large from the king of Persia to inquire into and reform all abuses, he chose not to act of himself, but to have the opinion and consent of the senate of the nation; this he prudently did to avoid their envy and that he might have less opposition and better success.

⁹ Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the great rain. — in the street of the house of God; in that street of the city which was next to the temple, and within the view of it;

— so that they might be as in God’s presence, whereby they might be awed to a more faithful and vigorous prosecution of their work. And this place they might choose rather than the court of the people, because they thought it might be polluted by the delinquents, who were all to come thither;

— and for the great rain; which now fell and which they interpreted as a token of the divine displeasure: for though it was in winter time, yet not with them a time of rain, for the former rain had fallen a month before; so that this being unusual and unexpected, they understood it as betokening evil to them.

¹⁰ And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, “Ye have transgressed and have taken foreign wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.

¹¹ 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 foreign wives.” — and separate yourselves from your strange wives; there being no mention made here of putting away their children but only their wives, it has been thought by some that they kept their children and by circumcision dedicated them to God.

¹² Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, “As thou hast said, so must we do. — as thou hast said, so must we do; being convinced of their sin, they saw it was a duty incumbent on them to put away their strange wives and that there was a necessity of it to avert the wrath of God for them.

¹³ But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand outside, neither is this a work of one day or two; for we are many who have transgressed in this thing. — such an enquiry must be of a lengthy nature as the matter cannot be summarily disposed of; the people who have come in from a distance cannot in the rainy weather protract their stay in the city by living and sleeping in the open air, as they would have done had it been summer.

¹⁴ Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all those who have taken foreign wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us.” — let now our rulers of all the congregations stand; let the great sanhedrim, or court of judicature at Jerusalem, be fixed and continued, and others:

— and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times; to the court at Jerusalem, at certain and fixed known times of their sittings there for this purpose:

— and with the elders of every city and the judges thereof; the principal magistrates of it, who were to testify that upon search and inquiry those were the men and all the men in their city, that had taken strange wives, and that they had put them away according to the order of the princes and elders; and this they proposed to be done in every city, and the account to be brought to the sanhedrim at Jerusalem, who were to sit at certain times till this affair was finished:

— until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us: which it seems had broke out in some instances, and they feared would do yet more unless this step was taken whereby they hoped it would be averted.

¹⁵ Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah stood against this matter, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them. — there are two views as to the correct rendering of the verse; the point of difference lies in the Hebrew words variously rendered ‘were appointed over’ and ‘stood up against’.

— (1) The rendering of the AV ‘were employed about’, though less accurate, agrees with that of the RV margin ‘were appointed over’. The Hebrew literally translated is ‘stood over’; (a) it is noticeable that this verb to ‘stand’ is the same as that used in the previous Ezra 10:12 ‘Let now our rulers be appointed (Heb. stand)’.

— (2) The rendering of the RV ‘stood up against’ has greater probability. (a) It accounts for the use of the adversative ‘only’. (b) The use of the words to ‘stand over or against’ in a hostile sense is supported by 1 Chronicles 21:1, II Chronicles 20:23, Daniel 8:25, Daniel 11:14.

— except for this verse we have no record of any of the opposition which considering the extreme severity of the measures would be almost inevitable. It is indeed a reasonable objection that the mention of the opposition is very awkwardly inserted between the people’s declaration and the statement (in Ezra 10:16) of their action.

¹⁶ And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, were separated according to the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names. And they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter,

¹⁷ and they made an end with all the men who had taken foreign wives by the first day of the first month. — they made an end with all the men. They ran through the whole list of those who were accused of having taken strange wives, and adjudicated on every case, by the first day of the first month, Nisan.

¹⁸ And among the sons of the priests who had taken foreign wives (namely, of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren), there were found: Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.

¹⁹ And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass. — they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass; to make atonement for it, and thereby set an example to others to do the same.

²⁰ And of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah;

²¹ and of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah;

²² and of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethaneel, Jozabad, and Elasah;

²³ also of the Levites: Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah (the same is Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer;

²⁴ of the singers also: Eliashib; and of the gatekeepers: Shallum and Telem, and Uri;

²⁵ moreover of Israel: of the sons of Parosh: Ramiah and Jeziah, and Malchiah, and Mijamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah;

²⁶ and of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Eliah;

²⁷ and of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and Zabad, and Aziza;

²⁸ of the sons also of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai;

²⁹ and of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, and Ramoth;

³⁰ and of the sons of Pahathmoab: Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezaleel, and Binnui, and Manasseh;

³¹ and of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Ishijah, Malchiah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,

³² Benjamin, Malluch and Shemariah;

³³ of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei;

³⁴ of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, and Uel,

³⁵ Benaiah, Bedeiah, Chelluh,

³⁶ Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,

³⁷ Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasau,

³⁸ and Bani, and Binnui, Shimei,

³⁹ and Shelemiah, and Nathan, and Adaiah,

⁴⁰ Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,

⁴¹ Azareel, and Shelemiah, Shemariah,

⁴² Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph;

⁴³ of the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, and Joel and Benaiah.

⁴⁴ All these had taken foreign wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had children. — the guilty persons, it would seem, were 113 in number. They comprised 4 members of the high priest’s family, 13 other priests, 10 Levites, and 86 lay Israelites belonging to at least 10 distinct families;

— and some of them had wives by whom they had children; no mention being made of the children being put away; it may be concluded they were not, but were taken care of, to be educated in the true religion and entered proselytes at a proper time; and the rather as Ezra gave no orders about their putting away, Ezra 10:11.

~ by Joel Huan on May 19, 2022.

Posted in Ezra