The Jewish Men Banish Their Foreign Wives

Text: Ezra 10:1-17

Reflection and Question: In this last chapter of Ezra, a great assembly of all the people gathered in a heavy rain. They confessed their sin of marrying foreign women, promised to separate from their foreign wives, and agreed to a process for review of every family to seal this covenant. The guilty men are named and the book ends, “All these had married foreign women, and they sent them away with their children.” Now we weep for these unnamed women and children who were not guilty, but suffered nonetheless. How has our sense of sin evolved since ancient times?

Prayer: Eternal God, we confess that we have sinned against You in thought, word and deed. We pray you of Your mercy, forgive what we have been, amend what we are, direct what we shall be, that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your way. Amen.

This meditation is based on the Daily Lectionary Year 1 from the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (1993).