Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasau are three men named in the register of those who had taken foreign wives in forbidden alliances with the surrounding nations and were called to separate from them. That practical reform of separation recorded in Ezra 10 was preparation for learning and obeying God's law. That same effort to separate the people from the heathen prepared them spiritually for rebuilding Jerusalem.
The verse belongs to God's clear counsel about marriage given in love and mercy, to be carefully and prayerfully consulted and walked agreeably to and cheerfully obeyed. Heeded, this counsel gives important instruction and timely warning that spares bitter anguish of heart and painful regret for long years and the frequent disappointments of that honorable estate. Together with the command to marry only in the Lord, it teaches that the duties of marriage must be studied before entering it.
Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasau are three men named in the register of those who had taken foreign wives in forbidden alliances with the surrounding nations and were called to separate from them. That practical reform of separation recorded in Ezra 10 was preparation for learning and obeying God's law. That same effort to separate the people from the heathen prepared them spiritually for rebuilding Jerusalem.
The verse belongs to God's clear counsel about marriage given in love and mercy, to be carefully and prayerfully consulted and walked agreeably to and cheerfully obeyed. Heeded, this counsel gives important instruction and timely warning that spares bitter anguish of heart and painful regret for long years and the frequent disappointments of that honorable estate. Together with the command to marry only in the Lord, it teaches that the duties of marriage must be studied before entering it.