Ezra 10:32 is not a promise but one entry in a register of personal names, illustrating that some verses in Scripture are lists of people rather than pledges. Those named there are three Israelites who had taken foreign wives and were publicly identified in connection with that transgression. The register belongs to Ezra's account of the reform carried out after the return from exile, when the community responded to his call for reformation.
That reform was a practical separation from forbidden alliances and heathen practices, an effort to separate the people from the heathen influences among them. This putting away of unlawful unions was the detailed preparation that came before the people were taught the law. By that separation they were restored to a spiritual condition fit for the work of rebuilding Jerusalem.
Ezra 10:32 is not a promise but one entry in a register of personal names, illustrating that some verses in Scripture are lists of people rather than pledges. Those named there are three Israelites who had taken foreign wives and were publicly identified in connection with that transgression. The register belongs to Ezra's account of the reform carried out after the return from exile, when the community responded to his call for reformation.
That reform was a practical separation from forbidden alliances and heathen practices, an effort to separate the people from the heathen influences among them. This putting away of unlawful unions was the detailed preparation that came before the people were taught the law. By that separation they were restored to a spiritual condition fit for the work of rebuilding Jerusalem.