Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.
All the people were assembled at Jerusalem on the twentieth day of the ninth month, sitting in the street of the house of God and trembling on account of their sin and the heavy rain. What they answered was the charge that they had increased Israel's trespass by taking strange wives and must confess to the Lord God of their fathers and do His pleasure by separating from the people of the land and from the strange wives. In its larger account the verse belongs to the response of the Jews to the call to address their unfaithfulness after the return from exile.
That separation was the effort to bring the people into a spiritual condition to understand the importance of rebuilding Jerusalem. Their commitment meant putting away forbidden alliances and heathen practices as a practical separation from the world and a preparation to learn and obey God's law. The loud voice records their unanimous, emphatic agreement, accepting the instruction they had heard and committing together to carry it out, which shows a united willingness to act.
Their pledge meant full compliance carried out in an orderly way, because the transgressors were many and the rain prevented standing outside and the work could not be done in one or two days. Appointed groups therefore came at set times until all were cleared, requiring two whole months from the first day of the tenth month to the first day of the first month. The chapter holds God's clear counsel about marriage, given in love and mercy to His people, to be read, prayerfully considered, and cheerfully obeyed, and the verse exemplifies the cheerful obedience now required of those considering marriage. Heeding it means studying the duties of marriage before entering it and marrying only in the Lord and not with unbelievers. Doing so escapes bitter anguish of heart and painful regret for long years, the frequent disappointments of that honorable estate, and that repentance which is at once too soon and too late.
All the people were assembled at Jerusalem on the twentieth day of the ninth month, sitting in the street of the house of God and trembling on account of their sin and the heavy rain. What they answered was the charge that they had increased Israel's trespass by taking strange wives and must confess to the Lord God of their fathers and do His pleasure by separating from the people of the land and from the strange wives. In its larger account the verse belongs to the response of the Jews to the call to address their unfaithfulness after the return from exile.
That separation was the effort to bring the people into a spiritual condition to understand the importance of rebuilding Jerusalem. Their commitment meant putting away forbidden alliances and heathen practices as a practical separation from the world and a preparation to learn and obey God's law. The loud voice records their unanimous, emphatic agreement, accepting the instruction they had heard and committing together to carry it out, which shows a united willingness to act.
Their pledge meant full compliance carried out in an orderly way, because the transgressors were many and the rain prevented standing outside and the work could not be done in one or two days. Appointed groups therefore came at set times until all were cleared, requiring two whole months from the first day of the tenth month to the first day of the first month. The chapter holds God's clear counsel about marriage, given in love and mercy to His people, to be read, prayerfully considered, and cheerfully obeyed, and the verse exemplifies the cheerful obedience now required of those considering marriage. Heeding it means studying the duties of marriage before entering it and marrying only in the Lord and not with unbelievers. Doing so escapes bitter anguish of heart and painful regret for long years, the frequent disappointments of that honorable estate, and that repentance which is at once too soon and too late.