Ezra 10:8

Ezr 10:8 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 that had been carried away.

Ver. 8. And that whosoever would not come, &c.] Laws, if they be not penal and compulsory, will soon be slighted by lawless, aweless persons. Howbeit, flies must not be killed upon men’s brows with beetles; peccadillos must not be punished as heinous crimes. Draco made it a capital offence to be idle, to steal pot herbs, &c. Of his laws Aristotle saith that they were not worthy of remembrance, but only for their too great severity; Ezra’s laws were more mild.

All his substance shall be forfeited] This, to men of their metal, was a forcible motive. When some have a loss in their riches, it is, as it were, raked out of their bellies; a piece of their very heart goes with it, Job 20:15, and they are filled with unmedicinable sorrows, Ecc 5:12.

And himself separated from the congregation] Banished the land, or at least cast out of the Church. Woe be to those that separate themselves, Jdg 1:19, Cainites you may call them, Gen 4:16; our church forsakers, worship scorners, that last brood of Beelzebub.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ezr 10:8. That whosoever would not come, &c., all his substance should be forfeited — In the Hebrew it is devoted, which signifies that his goods were to be so forfeited as to become sacred to God, and so rendered incapable of being restored to the former owner, being put into the treasury of God’s house. And himself separated from the congregation, &c. — No longer counted a Hebrew, but looked upon as a Gentile, and excluded all communication with the Israelites: shut out from the church, and people, and house, and public worship of God: “excommunicated,” says Mr. Locke, “by which he was excluded from all society; was not permitted to come within four cubits of the altar till absolved upon repentance. After sixty days contumacy, the anathema or execration followed, which, however, was rescinded upon repentance: nevertheless, it was not allowable for any one to kill the person under such an anathema, but he might be supported in a tent or cottage entirely separated from all society.” See Dodd.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10:8 if the leaders and elders so decided: It was reasonable for Ezra to add this exception clause because it might simply be impossible for some people to come to Jerusalem to participate in settling this matter.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, condemned.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 8. All his substance should be forfeited] To the use of the temple. So the Septuagint understood the place: Αναθεματισθησεται πασα ἡ ὑπαρξις αυτου, "All his substance shall be devoted to a holy use."

Himself separated] Excommunicated from the Church of God, and exiled from Israel.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. and that whosoever would not come] R.V. and that whosoever came not, i.e. whosoever failed (not, whosoever refused) to appear. The causes for non-appearance are not hinted at. All defaulters were to be treated as contumacious.

within three days] An expression which shows within what narrow limits the new community was established. The mention of Bethel (Ezr_2:28), Lod (Ezr_2:33), and Jericho (Ezr_2:34) as some of the most distant towns belonging to the Jews, shows that the requirement to be in Jerusalem within three days made no impossible demand upon the powers of an ordinarily active man.

according to the counsel of the princes and the elders] The real administrative body in Jerusalem. The representatives of the chief households and families. On the elders cf. Ezr_5:5.

all his substance should be forfeited] R.V. marg. Heb. devoted. A man’s substance is his possessions, ‘goods’. Cf. Ezr_1:4. The first part of the penalty was confiscation of property and the appropriation of the money, realized from its sale, by the Temple treasury. On ‘devotion’ (ḥerem) see Lev_27:28-29. In early times ‘devotion’ was tantamount to ‘destruction’ (cf. Exo_22:20; Jos_7:1-26, &c.; 1Sa_15:8; 1Sa_15:33).

and himself separated] The sentence of excommunication (see on Neh_13:28). To be separated from the congregation was no mere decree of banishment. A man with such a sentence was to be outlawed and disowned by his own race. The community was a religious one. Its heaviest punishment was exclusion from its privileged ranks.

from the congregation of those that had been carried away] R.V. from the congregation of the captivity.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And that whosoever would not come within three days,.... Or at the end of three days, as Jarchi, 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:

his substance should be forfeited; or "devoted" (p) to sacred uses, to be put into the treasury of the temple, and used in the service of it, and therefore never to be returned:

and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away; into captivity, but now returned from it; that is, should be excommunicated from them as a church, and be no more reckoned of the body politic, or a freeman of Israel, and so deprived of all privileges both in church and state.

(p) "anathema erit vel fore", Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "devoveretur", Michaelis.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Separated from the congregation - i. e., “excommunicated” (compare Exo 12:19; Num 19:20, etc.). The power assigned to Ezra is stated in Ezr 7:25-26.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Away. Hebrew and Septuagint, "subjected to anathema," (Calmet) and utterly destroyed; (Haydock) or, according to some editions of the Septuagint and Josephus, "consecrated to the temple." Esdras exercised the power which had been entrusted to him, chap. vii. 16.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Either by banishment; or rather, by excommunication from the church, and people, and house, and public worship of God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. Forfeited — Placed under ban, and thereby devoted to Jehovah. See note on Jos_6:17.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Within three days. The limits of Judaea at this time appear to have been Bethel on the north, Beersheba on the south, Jericho on the east, and the Mediterranean upon the west. As the frontier was nowhere much more than forty miles from Jerusalem, three days from the day that they heard the proclamation would be sufficient time to allow all the able-bodied men to reach the capital. Forfeited. Literally, "devoted," i.e. confiscated to the temple treasury. Separated from the congregation. i.e. excommunicated.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

by three days at the end of three days.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.