📖 Ezra 10

Ezra 10 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God’s house, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly.” That is not a motto invented for a poster. It is the first sentence a family hears when this page is opened at night.

Keep going a little further. The chapter also says, “Of the Levites: Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah (also called Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.” Ezra 10 opens with these words: “Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God’s house, there was gathered together to him out of…” The line to keep is Ezra 10:7: “They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem;” Carry the word “proclamati” from that verse into the rest of the day.

The line worth learning out loud is Ezra 10:7: “They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem;” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.

What happens first in Ezra 10? Then try this: Read “They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they…” once more. What does it show you about God? You do not have to finish every verse. You can close the book after the memory verse and still have read the Bible together.