Zebina
Zebina was one of the Israelites who had married foreign women during the time of Ezra.
Biography
Zebina was one of the Israelite men identified in Ezra's post-exilic reform as having taken a foreign wife in violation of the covenant community's standards of purity (Ezra 10:43). He appears in the list of the descendants of Nebo who had contracted these marriages and who agreed, following the public assembly convened by Ezra, to send away their foreign wives. The name Zebina, possibly of Aramaic origin meaning "purchased" or "bought," hints at the cultural mixing that characterized Jewish life in the diaspora and in post-exilic Judah. Beyond this single reference, nothing more is known of Zebina's life, family, or subsequent history in the restored community.
Significance
Zebina's story, however brief, touches on one of the most theologically charged issues of the post-exilic period: the maintenance of Israel's distinctive identity as a holy people set apart for God. The intermarriage crisis addressed by Ezra was not primarily about ethnicity but about the spiritual danger of syncretism, the fear that foreign spouses would draw Israelites away from covenant worship, as had happened repeatedly in Israel's history. Zebina's willingness to comply with the covenant reform represents a painful but necessary submission to communal covenant obligations over personal preference, a model of placing communal fidelity to God above individual comfort.
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]