In our study of Ezra 9 we learn how Ezra’s Torah teaching put the community under the microscope. Ezra brought the law and the law brought conviction.
Only four months after Ezra’s arrival (458 BCE), Judean officials reported to him that the returnees had a serious intermarriage problem. These informants were quite possibly the judges Ezra appointed when he set up a judicial system for the province (7:25). As new appointees, they took seriously their responsibility to consult Ezra on matters of concern that required judication. Their investigation into the community’s Torah compliance revealed that a subset of returnees “had not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations” (9:1). They accused the laity, priests, and Levites of violating God’s marriage laws.
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