Who was Binnui in the Bible?

Binnui was a man from the family of Bani who lived during the time of Ezra. He is noted for divorcing his foreign wife in obedience to Ezra's call for the Israelites to separate from foreign influences (Ezra 10:38).

Why did Binnui divorce his wife?

Binnui divorced his foreign wife as part of Ezra's religious reforms. This was done to purify the community and maintain Israel's covenant faithfulness by separating from the pagan practices of surrounding nations (Ezra 10:10-11, 44).

What is the significance of Binnui's story?

Binnui's action highlights the difficult, communal commitment to holiness required after the exile. His story serves as a specific example of the people's collective repentance and their effort to re-establish their identity under God's law.

Binnui

Old TestamentExile & ReturnMaleWife

Binnui, one of the descendants of Bani, divorced his foreign wife during Ezra's reforms.

Binnui

Biography

This Binnui appears in Ezra 10:38 among the descendants of Bani who had married foreign women and were compelled to put them away during Ezra's reform of the returned exile community. The clan of Bani was a significant group among the returning exiles (Ezra 2:10; Nehemiah 7:15), numbering in the hundreds. Ezra's investigation of unlawful intermarriages was prompted by the report that "the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands" (Ezra 9:2), an act the reformer regarded as a profound breach of covenant identity. Binnui, among others from his clan, complied with the painful directive. His specific mention among those who divorced their foreign wives places him within the larger drama of the community's struggle to maintain its distinctive identity before God.

Significance

This Binnui, like his namesake from the clan of Pahath-moab (Ezra 10:30), represents the community's corporate response to the danger of spiritual assimilation in the post-exilic period. Ezra's theology of holiness, drawn from the Deuteronomic warnings against intermarriage with foreign peoples (Deuteronomy 7:3-4), was rooted in the conviction that Israel's identity as a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6) required visible distinctiveness. The repeated mention of various individuals across different clans who complied with this reform underscores that covenant renewal was not the act of a few leaders but a community-wide response. Binnui's obedience, however grievous the personal cost, reflects the demanding nature of belonging to a people called to embody holiness before the nations.

Verse Appearances (1)

Ezra

Ezra 10:38

References

Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References (TIPNR). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]

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