Shelemiah
Shelemiah, another Israelite who married a foreign wife during Ezra's time.
Biography
Shelemiah appears in Ezra 10:39 among the Israelite men listed as having married foreign women during the post-exilic period, identified as one of the sons of Binnui. His name surfaces in the context of the comprehensive reform undertaken by Ezra the scribe, who assembled the community in Jerusalem and called upon those who had contracted these marriages to dissolve them in order to preserve the covenant purity of the restored community. Shelemiah is one of many ordinary individuals caught up in a community-wide spiritual crisis, his name preserved in Scripture as part of the public accounting of those who acknowledged their transgression and submitted to the community's covenant renewal process.
Significance
Shelemiah's inclusion in Ezra 10's list of those who had married foreign wives illustrates the ongoing tension in post-exilic Israel between assimilation and covenant identity. The mixed marriages addressed by Ezra were not simply social or ethnic matters but carried profound theological stakes: they threatened the ritual purity, distinctive worship, and covenant character of the restored community tasked with maintaining the Abrahamic promises. Shelemiah's willingness to be named publicly and to submit to the community's reform process represents a form of corporate repentance. His story reminds readers that covenant faithfulness is always a communal as well as individual matter, requiring accountability within the body of God's people.
Verse Appearances (1)
Ezra
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]