And it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated every stranger from Israel.

And it cometh to pass, at their hearing the law, that they separate all the mixed people from Israel.

So after hearing the law, they took out of Israel all the mixed people.

And it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the alien mixture.

Now it happened that, when they had heard the law, they separated every foreigner from Israel.

A separation like that made by Ezra, some 20 years previously Ezra 10:15-44, seems to be intended. The pagan wives were divorced and sent back, with their offspring, to their own countries.

They separated from Israel all the mixed multitude - They excluded all strange women, and all persons, young and old, who had been born of these illegal connections.

Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel (a) all the mixed multitude.
(a) That is, all who had joined in unlawful marriage and also those with whom God had forbidden them to mingle with.

Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law,.... Or the law concerning the Ammonite and the Moabite, and which included other nations also, and forbad marriage with them:
that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude; all of these, and other nations, they had contracted affinity with.

This law being understood, all strangers were separated from Israel. ערב is taken from Exodus 12:38, where it denotes the mixed multitude of non-Israelitish people who followed the Israelites at their departure from Egypt. The word is here transferred to strangers of different heathen nationalities living among the Israelites. The date of the occurrence here related cannot be more precisely defined from the ההוּא בּיּום. Public readings of the law frequently took place in those days, as is obvious from Nehemiah 8 and 9, where we learn that in the seventh month the book of the law was publicly read, not only on the first and second days, but also daily during the feast of tabernacles, and again on the day of prayer and fasting on the twenty-fourth of the month. It appears, however, from מזּה לפני, Nehemiah 13:4, compared with Nehemiah 13:6, that the reading Nehemiah 13:1-3 took place in the interval between Nehemiah's first and second stay at Jerusalem. This view is not opposed by the facts mentioned Nehemiah 13:4. and 23f. The separation of the ערב could not be carried out at once; and hence, notwithstanding repeated resolutions to sever themselves from strangers (Nehemiah 9:2; Nehemiah 10:31), cases to the contrary might be discovered, and make fresh separations needful.

Multitude - All the heathenish people with whom they had contracted alliance.