And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem;

EZRA 10:7KJV
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Ezra 10:7 (KJV)

What does Ezra 10:7 mean?

Ezra 10:7 describes a public summons calling the people who had returned from captivity to meet in Jerusalem. The summons brought a community-wide response to a problem that Ezra and the people were facing together.

The order came after Ezra and the people made a promise concerning marriages to foreign women, described earlier in the chapter. The verse presents the summons as an official action, rather than a private invitation from Ezra.

The Hebrew behind Ezra 10:7

  • “proclamation” — קוֹל (qol): The word often means “voice” or “sound.” Here it carries the sense of a public announcement made known across the region.
  • “captivity” — גּוֹלָה (golah): The word can refer to exile or to the people who experienced it. “Children of the captivity” identifies the community by its shared history of displacement.

Why Ezra 10:7 matters

  • The meeting was meant to reach beyond the city itself. The proclamation went throughout “Judah and Jerusalem,” gathering people from the surrounding region as well as the city.
  • The summons had serious consequences. Ezra 10:8 says those who failed to come within three days would lose their property and be separated from the community.
  • The gathering led to a process of inquiry. In Ezra 10:16–17, Ezra and selected family leaders examine the cases over a period of time.

Where else these words appear

“captivity” Hebrew H1473 · used in 41 verses

  • 2 Kings 24:15 And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
  • Ezra 10:16 And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.
  • Ezekiel 1:1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

“together” Hebrew H6908 · used in 121 verses

  • Genesis 41:35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.
  • 2 Chronicles 32:4 So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
  • Jeremiah 31:8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.