Who was Sharai in the Bible?

Sharai was an Israelite man who, after the exile, had married a foreign woman. He is listed among those who agreed to divorce their foreign wives to comply with Ezra's call for religious purity and separation from the surrounding nations (Ezra 10:40).

Why did Sharai have to divorce his wife?

Sharai divorced his foreign wife as part of a covenant renewal led by Ezra. This drastic action was taken to address the community's sin of intermarriage with pagan nations, which was seen as leading the people away from God and breaking His law (Ezra 10:2-3, 44).

What is the significance of Sharai's story?

Sharai's story, though brief, is significant as a historical record of the community's difficult obedience to Ezra's reforms. It highlights the post-exilic struggle to maintain a distinct Jewish identity and covenant faithfulness to God, even at great personal cost.

Sharai

Old TestamentExile & ReturnMaleWife

Sharai was one of the Israelites who had married a foreign woman and agreed to divorce her as part of Ezra's religious reforms.

Sharai

Biography

Sharai is listed in Ezra 10:40 among the Israelite laymen who had contracted marriages with foreign women during the postexilic period and subsequently pledged to dissolve those unions in compliance with Ezra's sweeping religious reform. His name, possibly meaning "my prince" or "set free," appears within a catalog of men from diverse families who assembled before Ezra and the elders to address the crisis of intermarriage that threatened Israel's covenantal identity. The text records that Sharai, along with his contemporaries, made a binding covenant before God and the community to put away his foreign wife. Beyond this single act of covenant compliance, no further biographical detail is preserved for him in the biblical record.

Significance

Sharai's compliance with Ezra's reform (Ezra 10:40) illustrates the painful personal cost of covenantal obedience in the postexilic community. Ezra's reform, grounded in texts such as Deuteronomy 7:3-4, sought to protect Israel's theological distinctiveness and prevent the syncretistic religious drift that had historically drawn Israel away from Yahweh. Individuals like Sharai embody the corporate repentance that characterized this critical moment of restoration. Their willingness to prioritize covenantal fidelity over personal relationships reflects the theological seriousness with which the returned exiles approached the rebuilding of Israel's spiritual identity as a holy people set apart for God.

Verse Appearances (1)

Ezra

Ezra 10:40

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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