Person Old Testament
Adna
Adna was one of the Israelites who had married foreign women during the Babylonian exile and pledged to put away his foreign wife as part of Ezra's reforms. Mentioned once in Scripture, at Ezra 10:30.
Why it matters. Israelite who married a foreign woman during the exile
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Adna
Adna is mentioned in Ezr.10.30 as one of the Israelites who had married foreign women during the Babylonian exile. After the return from exile, Ezra the scribe led a reform movement to address the issue of intermarriage, which was seen as a violation of God's law and a threat to the identity and purity of the Jewish community.
During a public assembly, the people confessed their sins and made a covenant to put away their foreign wives and children born to them (Ezr.10.1-5). Adna was among those who were found to have married foreign women and pledged to separate from them as part of the reform process (Ezr.10.30).
The context of Ezra 10 highlights the importance of maintaining religious and ethnic purity among the Jewish people, especially after the return from exile. Intermarriage with foreign women was seen as a form of unfaithfulness to God and a potential source of idolatry and apostasy.
No further details are provided about Adna's background, family, or the specific circumstances of his marriage to a foreign woman. His inclusion in the list of those who had intermarried underscores the widespread nature of the issue and the collective response of the community to address it under Ezra's leadership.
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
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Appears in Scripture
Named in 1 verse across 1 book. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.
Ezra (1 verse)