Study Desk

Now while Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and laying himself face down before the house of God, a very large group from Israel, of men, women, and children, gathered to him, for the people wept bitterly.

"Therefore let us now make a covenant with our God to send away all the [foreign] wives and their children, in accordance with the advice of my lord and of those who tremble [in reverent obedience] at the commandment of our God; and let it be done in accordance with the Law.

All these had married foreign women, and some of them had wives by whom they had children.

"Now our flesh (skin) is the same as that of our brothers (relatives), and our children are like their children, yet here we are forcing (selling) our sons and our daughters to be slaves; and some of our daughters are forced into bondage already, and we are powerless [to redeem them] because our fields and vineyards belong to others."

"You made their children as numerous as the stars of heaven, And You brought them into the land Which You told their fathers to enter and possess.

Also on that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy; the women and children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard from far away.

As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them knew how to speak [Hebrew] the language of Judah, but only the language of his own people.

Letters were sent by couriers to all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar (March 7, 473 B.C.), and to seize their belongings as plunder.

In it the king granted the Jews who were in every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives; to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force that might attack them, their little children, and women; and to take the enemies' goods as plunder,

Then Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head [in mourning for the children], and he fell to the ground and worshiped [God].

"His children are far from safety [and included in their father's ruin], They are oppressed and crushed in the [court of justice in the city's] gate, And there is no one to rescue them.

"If your children have sinned against Him, Then He has handed them over to the power of their transgression and punished them.

"He who denounces and informs against his friends for a share of the spoil, The eyes of his children will also languish and fail.

"Even young children despise me; When I get up, they speak against me.

"Their children and descendants are established with them in their sight, And their offspring before their eyes.

"They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children skip about.

"You say, 'God stores away [the punishment of] man's wickedness for his children.' Let God repay him so that he may know and experience it.

"Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, The poor go to their work, diligently seeking food; As bread for their children in the desert.

Though his children are many, they are destined for the sword; And his descendants will not have sufficient bread.

The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD'S throne is in heaven. His eyes see, His eyelids test the children of men.