1. Ezra 10:8 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What would it mean for property to be forfeited?

Ezra 10:8 (ESV)

8 and that if anyone did not come within three days, by order of the officials and the elders all his property should be forfeited, and he himself banned from the congregation of the exiles.

The word forfeit refers to putting something under the ban, an object or person being totally devoted to the Lord.1 This devotion would be expressed either in having the object or person destroyed (Exodus 22:20; Deuteronomy 13:13–17) or set aside for use in the temple (Leviticus 27:28–29; Joshua 6:18–19; Joshua 7:1–26).2