Matthew Henry Commentary Ezra 10:1-5

"Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there was gathered together unto him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very sore. And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land: yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing. 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 that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. Arise; for the matter belongeth unto thee, and we are with thee: be of good courage, and do it. Then arose Ezra, and made the chiefs of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they would do according to this word. So they sware." — Ezra 10:1-5 (ASV)

Shechaniah acknowledged the national guilt. The case is sad, but it is not desperate; the disease is threatening, but not incurable. Now that the people begin to lament, a spirit of repentance seems to be poured out; now there is hope that God will forgive and have mercy. The sin that rightly troubles us will not ruin us.

In melancholy times we must observe what is in our favor, as well as what is against us. And there may be good hopes through grace, even when there is the sense of great guilt before God. The case is plain: what has been done amiss must be undone again as far as possible. Nothing less than this is true repentance.

Sin must be put away, with a resolution never to have anything more to do with it. What has been unjustly gained must be restored. Arise, be of good courage. Weeping, in this case, is good, but reforming is better.

As to being unequally yoked with unbelievers, such marriages, it is certain, are sinful and ought not to be made; but now they are not null, as they were before the gospel ended the separation between Jews and Gentiles.