10-16. Reproof of those who contracted marriages with foreigners and
repudiated their Jewish wives.
10. Have we not all one father?--Why, seeing we all have one
common origin, "do we deal treacherously against one another"
("His brother" being a general expression implying that all are
"brethren" and sisters as children of the same Father above
(1Th 4:3-6),
and so including the wives so injured)? namely, by putting away
our Jewish wives, and taking foreign women to wife (compare
Mal 2:14
and Mal 2:11;
Ezr 9:1-9),
and so violating "the covenant" made by Jehovah with "our fathers," by
which it was ordained that we should be a people separated from the
other peoples of the world
(Ex 19:5;
Le 20:24, 26;
De 7:3).
To intermarry with the heathen would defeat this purpose of Jehovah,
who was the common Father of the Israelites in a peculiar sense in
which He was not Father of the heathen. The "one Father" is Jehovah
(Job 31:15;
1Co 8:6;
Eph 4:6).
"Created us": not merely physical creation, but "created us" to be His
peculiar and chosen people
(Ps 102:18;
Isa 43:1; 45:8; 60:21;
Eph 2:10),
[CALVIN]. How marked the contrast between the
honor here done to the female sex, and the degradation to which
Oriental women are generally subjected!
JFB.
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