Text -- Ezra 9:10 (NET)

9:10 “And now what are we able to say after this, our God? For we have forsaken your commandments

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Clarke: Ezr 9:10

What shall we say after this? - Even in the midst of these beginnings of respite and mercy we have begun to provoke thee anew!

Defender: Ezr 9:10

The rebellious iniquity of the human heart is astonishing! Here are God's chosen people, only one generation after their miraculous deliverance from captive exile, already falling back into the same sins which had sent them away into captivity in the first place. They were already "doing according to their abominations" - that is, the idolatrous practices - of the Canaanites and the other pagan people that had led to their first downfall. Furthermore, their leaders were among the worst offenders (Ezr 9:2)."

TSK: Ezr 9:10

what shall we say : Gen 44:16; Jos 7:8; Lam 3:22; Dan 9:4-16; Rom 3:19

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Poole: Ezr 9:10

What apology can we make for ourselves, after thou hast conferred such great and high favours upon us, and we have so grossly abused them?

Gill: Ezr 9:10

And now, O our God, what shall we say after this?.... What apology or excuse can be made for such ingratitude? what can be said in favour of such a people? what kindness can be expected to be shown to a people who had behaved in so base a manner?

for we have forsaken thy commandments: particularly those which related to marriages with people of other nations.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Ezr 9:1-15

1 Ezra mourns for the affinity of the people with strangers.

5 He prays unto God, with confession of sins.

MHCC: Ezr 9:5-15

The sacrifice, especially the evening sacrifice, was a type of the blessed Lamb of God, who in the evening of the world, was to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Ezra's address is a penitent confession of sin, the sin of his people. But let this be the comfort of true penitents, that though their sins reach to the heavens, God's mercy is in the heavens. Ezra, speaking of sin, speaks as one much ashamed. Holy shame is as necessary in true repentance as holy sorrow. Ezra speaks as much amazed. The discoveries of guilt cause amazement; the more we think of sin, the worse it looks. Say, God be merciful to me sinner. Ezra speaks as one much afraid. There is not a surer or saddler presage of ruin, than turning to sin, after great judgments, and great deliverances. Every one in the church of God, has to wonder that he has not wearied out the Lord's patience, and brought destruction upon himself. What then must be the case of the ungodly? But though the true penitent has nothing to plead in his own behalf, the heavenly Advocate pleads most powerfully for him.

Matthew Henry: Ezr 9:5-15

What the meditations of Ezra's heart were, while for some hours he sat down astonished, we may guess by the words of his mouth when at length he spoke with his tongue; and a most pathetic address he here makes to Heaven upon this occasion. Observe,

I. The time when he made this address - at the evening sacrifice, Ezr 9:5. Then (it is likely) devout people used to come into the courts of the temple, to grace the solemnity of the sacrifice and to offer up their own prayers to God in concurrence with it. In their hearing Ezra chose to make this confession, that they might be made duly sensible of the sins of their people, which hitherto they had either not taken notice of or had made light of. Prayer may preach. The sacrifice, and especially the evening sacrifice, was a type of the great propitiation, that blessed Lamb of God which in the evening of the world was to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself, to which we may suppose Ezra had an eye of faith in this penitential address to God; he makes confession with his hand, as it were, upon the head of that great sacrifice, through which we receive the atonement. Certainly Ezra was no stranger to the message which the angel Gabriel had some years ago delivered to Daniel, at the time of the evening sacrifice, and as it were in explication of it, concerning Messiah the Prince (Dan 9:21, Dan 9:24); and perhaps he had regard to that in choosing this time.

II. His preparation for this address. 1. He rose up from his heaviness, and so far shook off the burden of his grief as was necessary to the lifting up of his heart to God. He recovered from his astonishment, got the tumult of his troubled spirits somewhat stilled and his spirit composed for communion with God. 2. He fell upon his knees, put himself into the posture of a penitent humbling himself and a petitioner suing for mercy, in both representing the people for whom he was now an intercessor. 3. He spread out his hands, as one affected with what he was going to say, offering it up unto God, waiting, and reaching out, as it were, with an earnest expectation, to receive a gracious answer. In this he had an eye to God as the Lord, and as his God, a God of power, but a God of grace.

III. The address itself. It is not properly to be called a prayer, for there is not a word of petition in it; but, if we give prayer its full latitude, it is the offering up of pious and devout affections to God, and very devout, very pious, are the affections which Ezra here expresses. His address is a penitent confession of sin, not his own (from a conscience burdened with its own guilt and apprehensive of his own danger), but the sin of his people, from a gracious concern for the honour of God and the welfare of Israel. Here is a lively picture of ingenuous repentance. Observe in this address,

1. The confession he makes of the sin and the aggravations of it, which he insists upon, to affect his own heart and theirs that joined with him with holy sorrow and shame and fear, in the consideration of it, that they might be deeply humbled for it. And it is observable that, though he himself was wholly clear from this guilt, yet he puts himself into the number of the sinners, because he was a member of the same community - our sins and our trespass. Perhaps he now remembered it against himself, as his fault, that he had staid so long after his brethren in Babylon, and had not separated himself so soon as he might have done from the people of those lands. When we are lamenting the wickedness of the wicked, it may be, if we duly reflect upon ourselves and give our own hearts leave to deal faithfully with us, we may find something of the same nature, though in a lower degree, that we also have been guilty of. However, he speaks that which was, or should have been, the general complaint.

(1.) He owns their sins to have been very great: " Our iniquities are increased over our heads (Ezr 9:6); we are ready to perish in them as in keep waters;"so general was the prevalency of them, so violent the power of them, and so threatening were they of the most pernicious consequences. "Iniquity has grown up to such a height among us that it reaches to the heavens, so very impudent that it dares heaven, so very provoking that, like the sin of Sodom, it cries to heaven for vengeance."But let this be the comfort of true penitents that though their sins reach to the heavens God's mercy is in the heavens, Psa 36:5. Where sin abounds grace will much more abound.

(2.) Their sin had been long persisted in (Ezr 9:7): Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass. The example of those that had gone before them he thought so far from excusing their fault that it aggravated it. "We should have taken warning not to stumble at the same stone. The corruption is so much the worse that it has taken deep root and begins to plead prescription, but by this means we have reason to fear that the measure of the iniquity is nearly full."

(3.) The great and sore judgments which God had brought upon them for their sins did very much aggravate them: " For our iniquities we have been delivered to the sword and to captivity (Ezr 9:7), and yet not reformed, yet not reclaimed - brayed in the mortar, and yet the folly not gone (Pro 27:22) - corrected, but not reclaimed."

(4.) The late mercies God had bestowed upon them did likewise very much aggravate their sins. This he insists largely upon, Ezr 9:8, Ezr 9:9. Observe, [1.] The time of mercy: Now for a little space, that is, "It is but a little while since we had our liberty, and it is not likely to continue long."This greatly aggravated their sin, that they were so lately in the furnace and that they knew not how soon they might return to it again; and could they yet be secure? [2.] The fountain of mercy: Grace has been shown us from the Lord. The kings of Persia were the instruments of their enlargement; but he ascribes it to God and to his grace, his free grace, without any merit of theirs. [3.] The streams of mercy, - that they were not forsaken in their bondage, but even in Babylon had the tokens of God's presence, - that they were a remnant of Israelites left, a few out of many, and those narrowly escaped out of the hands of their enemies, by the favour of the kings of Persia, - and especially that they had a nail in his holy place, that is (as it is explained, Ezr 9:9), that they had set up the house of God. They had their religion settled and the service of the temple in a constant method. We are to reckon it a great comfort and advantage to have stated opportunities of worshipping God. Blessed are those that dwell in God's house, like Anna that departed not from the temple. This is my rest for ever, says the gracious soul. [4.] The effects of all this. It enlightened their eyes, and it revived their hearts; that is, it was very comfortable to them, and the more sensibly so because it was in their bondage: it was life from the dead to them. Though but a little reviving, it was a great favour, considering that they deserved none and the day of small things was an earnest of greater. "Now,"says Ezra, "how ungrateful are we to offend a God that has been so kind to us! how disingenuous to mingle in sin with those nations from whom we have been, in wonderful mercy, delivered! how unwise to expose ourselves to God's displeasure when we are tried with the returns of his favour and are upon our good behaviour for the continuance of it!"

(5.) It was a great aggravation of the sin that it was against an express command: We have forsaken thy commandments, Ezr 9:10. It seems to have been an ancient law of the house of Jacob not to match with the families of the uncircumcised, Gen 34:14. But, besides that, God had strictly forbidden it. He recites the command, Ezr 9:11, Ezr 9:12. For sin appears sin, appears exceedingly sinful, when we compare it with the law which is broken by it. Nothing could be more express: Give not your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons. The reason given is because, if they mingled with those nations, they would pollute themselves. It was an unclean land, and they were a holy people; but if they kept themselves distinct from them it would be their honour and safety, and the perpetuating of their prosperity. Now to violate a command so express, backed with such reasons, and a fundamental law of their constitution, was very provoking to the God of heaven.

(6.) That in the judgments by which they had already smarted for their sins God had punished them less than their iniquities deserved, so that he looked upon them to be still in debt upon the old account. "What! and yet shall we run up a new score? Has God dealt so gently with us in correcting us, and shall we thus abuse his favour and turn his grace into wantonness?"God, in his grace and mercy, had said concerning Sion's captivity, She hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins (Isa 40:2); but Ezra, in a penitential sense of the great malignity that was in their sin, acknowledged that, though the punishment was very great, it was less than they deserved.

2. The devout affections that were working in him, in making this confession. Speaking of sin,

(1.) He speaks as one much ashamed. With this he begins (Ezr 9:6), O my God! I am ashamed and blush, O my God! (so the words are placed) to lift up my face unto thee. Note, [1.] Sin is a shameful thing; as soon as ever our first parents had eaten forbidden fruit they were ashamed of themselves. [2.] Holy shame is as necessary an ingredient in true and ingenuous repentance as holy sorrow. [3.] The sins of others should be our shame, and we should blush for those who do not blush for themselves. We may well be ashamed that we are any thing akin to those who are so ungrateful to God and unwise for themselves. This is clearing ourselves, 2Co 7:11. [4.] Penitent sinners never see so much reason to blush and be ashamed as when they come to lift up their faces before God. A natural sense of our own honour which we have injured will make us ashamed, when we have done a wrong thing, to look men in the face; but a gracious concern for God's honour will make us much more ashamed to look him in the face. The publican, when he went to the temple to pray, hung down his head more than ever, as one ashamed, Luk 18:13. [5.] An eye to God as our God will be of great use to us in the exercise of repentance. Ezra begins, O my God! and again in the same breath, My God. The consideration of our covenant-relation to God as ours will help to humble us, and break our hearts for sin, that we should violate both his precepts to us and our promises to him; it will also encourage us to hope for pardon upon repentance. "He is my God, notwithstanding this;"and every transgression in the covenant does not throw us out of covenant.

(2.) He speaks as one much amazed (Ezr 9:10) " What shall we say after this? For my part I know not what to say: if God do not help us, we are undone."The discoveries of guilt excite amazement: the more we think of sin the worse it looks. The difficulty of the case excites amazement. How shall we recover ourselves? Which way shall we make our peace with God? [1.] True penitents are at a loss what to say. Shall we say, We have not sinned, or, God will not require it? If we do, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Shall we say, Have patience with us and we will pay thee all, with thousands of rams, or our first-born for our transgression? God will not thus be mocked: he knows we are insolvent. Shall we say, There is no hope, and let come on us what will? That is but to make bad worse. [2.] True penitents will consider what to say, and should, as Ezra, beg of God to teach them. What shall we say? Say, "I have sinned; I have done foolishly; God be merciful to me a sinner;"and the like. See Hos 14:2.

(3.) He speaks as one much afraid, Ezr 9:13, Ezr 9:14. "After all the judgments that have come upon us to reclaim us from sin, and all the deliverances that have been wrought for us to engage us to God and duty, if we should again break God's commandments, by joining in affinity with the children of disobedience and learning their ways, what else could we expect but that God should be angry with us till he had consumed us, and there should not be so much as a remnant left, nor any to escape the destruction?"There is not a surer nor sadder presage of ruin to any people than revolting to sin, to the same sins again, after great judgments and great deliverances. Those that will be wrought upon neither by the one nor by the other are fit to be rejected, as reprobate silver, for the founder melteth in vain.

(4.) He speaks as one much assured of the righteousness of God, and resolved to acquiesce in that and to leave the matter with him whose judgment is according to truth (Ezr 9:15): " Thou art righteous, wise, just, and good; thou wilt neither do us wrong nor be hard upon us; and therefore behold we are before thee, we lie at thy feet, waiting our doom; we cannot stand before thee, insisting upon any righteousness of our own, having no plea to support us or bring us off, and therefore we fall down before thee, in our trespass, and cast ourselves on thy mercy. Do unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee, Jdg 10:15. We have nothing to say, nothing to do, but to make supplication to our Judge, "Job 9:15. Thus does this good man lay his grief before God and then leave it with him.

Keil-Delitzsch: Ezr 9:5-15

Ezra's prayer and confession for the congregation. - Ezr 9:5 And at the time ofthe evening sacrifice, I rose up from my mortification ( תּענית ,humiliation, generally through fasting, here through sitting motionless indeep affliction of soul), and rending my garment and my mantle. Thesewords contribute a second particular to קמתּי , and do not meanthat Ezra arose with his garments torn, but state that, on arising, he renthis clothing, and therefore again manifested his sorrow in this manner. Hethen fell on his knees, and spread out his hands to God (comp. 1Ki 8:22), to make a confession of the heavy guilt of the congregation beforeGod, and thus impressively to set their sins before all who heard hisprayer.

Ezr 9:6

9:6, etc. The train of thought in this prayer is as follows: I scarcely dareto lift up my fact to God, through shame for the greatness of our misdeeds(Ezr 9:6). From the days of our fathers, God has sorely punished us for oursins by delivering us into the power of our enemies; but has now againturned His pity towards us, and revived us in the place of His sanctuary,through the favour of the king of Persia (Ezr 9:7). But we have againtransgressed His commands, with the keeping of which God has connectedour possession of the good land given unto us (Ezr 9:10). Should we then,after God has spared us more than we through our trespasses havedeserved, bring His wrath upon us, till we are wholly consumed? God isjust; He has preserved us; but we stand before Him with heavy guilt uponus, such guilt that we cannot endure God's presence (Ezr 9:13). Ezra doesnot pray for the pardon of their sin, for he desires only to bring thecongregation to the knowledge of the greatness of their transgression, andso to invite them to do all that in them lies to atone for their guilt, and toappease God's wrath.

"I am ashamed, and am covered with shame, to lift up my face toThee, my God." ונכלמתּי בּשׁתּי united, as in Jer 31:19, comp. Isa 45:16, and other passages. נכלם , to be covered withshame, is stronger than בּושׁ . "For our iniquities are increasedover our head,"i.e., have grown above our head. ראשׁ למעלה , to or over the head. למעלה serves to enhance themeaning of רבוּ , like 1Ch 23:17. "And our guiltiness is great,(reaching) unto the heavens;"comp. 2Ch 28:9.

Ezr 9:7

"Since the days of our fathers, have we, our kings, our priests,been delivered into the hands of the kings of the lands, to the sword, tocaptivity, to plunder, and to shame of face."The words from בּחרב onwards serve to explain what is meant by being delivered into thehand of strange kings. On the expression פּנים בּשׁת ,comp. Dan 9:7, etc., 2Ch 32:21. הזּה כּהיּום , as itis this day, as is to-day the case; see remarks on Dan 9:7. The thought is:We are still sorely suffering for our sins, by being yet under the yoke offoreign sovereigns.

Ezr 9:8-9

"And now for a little moment there has been mercy from theLord our God, to leave us a rescued remnant, and to give us a nail in Hisholy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little revivingin our bondage."He calls the short interval between their release fromcaptivity by Cyrus, and the time when he is speaking, רגע כּמעט , a little moment (comp. Isa 26:20), in comparison with the longperiod of suffering from the times of the Assyrians (comp. Neh 9:32) tillthe reign of Cyrus. פּליטה , a rescued remnant, is the newcommunity delivered from Babylon, and returned to the land of theirfathers. In proportion to the numerous population of former days, it wasbut a remnant that escaped destruction; but a remnant which, according tothe predictions of the prophets, was again to grow into a large nation. Afoundation for this hope was given by the fact that God had given them "anail in the place of His sanctuary."The expression is figurative. יתד is a nail or peg struck into thewall, to hang any kind of domestic utensils upon; comp. Isa 22:23, etc. Such a nail was the place of God's sanctuary, the temple, to the rescuedcommunity. This was to them a firm nail, by which they were borne andupheld; and this nail God had given them as a support to which they mightcling, and gain new life and vigour. The infinitive clauses following, להאיר and לתתּנוּ , are dependent upon the precedinginfinitives להשׁאיר and ולתת , and state the purpose forwhich God has given a nail in His house to this remnant. That our Godmay enlighten our eyes, i.e., may bestow upon us new vitality; comp. Psa 13:4. Suffering and misfortune make the eyes dim, and their light isquenched in death: the enlightened or beaming eye is an image of vitalpower; comp. 1Sa 14:27, 1Sa 14:29. מחיה לתתּנוּ is not tobe translated, ut daret nobis vivificationem , the suffix to לתתּנוּ being not dative, but accusative. The literal rendering is: that He may make us a slight reviving. מחיה , the means of supporting life, restoration to life; see on 2Ch 14:13. Ezra adds מעט ; for the life to which the community hadattained was but feeble, in comparison with a vigorous social life. Theirdeliverance from Babylon and return to the land of their fathers was, so tospeak, a revival from death; compare the embodiment of this figure inEzekiel's vision, Eze 37:1-14 : they were, however, still in a state ofvassalage, and had not yet regained their independence. This thought isfurther carried out in Ezr 9:9 : "For we are bondmen, yet our God hath notforsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy to us before the kingsof Persia; so that they have given us a reviving to build up the house of ourGod, and to repair its ruins, and have given us a wall about us in Judah andJerusalem."They who have returned to Jerusalem and Judah are stillbondmen, for they are yet under the Persian yoke; but God has disposedthe kings of Persia so to favour them as to give them a reviving, to enablethem to rebuild the house of God. Cyrus and Darius had not merelypermitted and commanded the building of the temple, but had alsofurnished them with considerable assistance towards the carrying out ofthis work; comp. Ezr 1:3, etc. Ezr 6:7-9. The suffix in חרבתיו alludes to אלהים בּית . The words of the last sentence are figurative. גּדר meansthe wall of a vineyard, the wall or fence built for its protection (Isa 5:2, Isa 5:5). Hence the wall, or enclosure, is an image of protection from the incursionsand attacks of enemies. Such a wall has been given them in Judah andJerusalem by the kings of Persia. "The meaning is not that they possess aplace defended by walls (perhaps, therefore, the temple) in Jerusalem andJudah, but that the Persian kings have given to the new community a safedwelling-place (or the means of existence), because the power of thePersian empire secures to the returned Israelites continued and undisturbedpossession of the city and the land."(Bertheau.)

After this statement concerning the divine favour, Ezra next sets himself todescribe the conduct of his countrymen with respect to the mercyextended to them.

Ezr 9:10

"And now, O our God, what can we say after this? That wehave forsaken Thy commandments," זאת , i.e., such proofs of thedivine compassion as have just been mentioned. The answer which followscommences with כּי , before which נאמר is mentallyrepeated: "we can only say that we have forsaken Thy commandments,requited Thy kindness with sins."

Ezr 9:11-12

Namely, the commandments "which Thou hast commandedby Thy servants the prophets, saying, The land unto which ye go topossess it is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the people of thelands, through their abominations, wherewith they have filled it from oneend to another through their impurity. And now give not your daughtersunto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons (for wives),nor seek their peace nor their wealth for ever; that ye may be strong, andeat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever."The words of the prophets introduced by לאמר are foundin these terms neither in the prophetical books nor the Pentateuch. Theyare not, therefore, to be regarded as a verbal quotation, but only as adeclaration that the prohibition of intermarriage with the heathen had beeninculcated by the prophets. The introduction of this prohibition by the words: the land unto which yego to possess it, refers to the Mosaic age, and in using it Ezra had chieflyin view Deu 7:1-3. He interweaves, however, with this passage othersayings from the Pentateuch, e.g., Deu 23:7, and from the propheticwritings, without designing to make a verbal quotation. He says quitegenerally, by His servants the prophets, as the author of the books ofKings does in similar cases, e.g., 2Ki 17:23; 2Ki 21:10; 2Ki 24:2, where theleading idea is, not to give the saying of some one prophet, but torepresent the truth in question as one frequently reiterated. The sayings ofMoses in Deuteronomy also bear a prophetical character; for in this bookhe, after the manner of the prophets, seeks to make the people lay to heartthe duty of obeying the law. It is true that we do not meet in the otherbooks of Scripture a special prohibition of marriages with Canaanites,though in the prophetical remarks, Jdg 3:6, such marriages are reprovedas occasions of seducing the Israelites to idolatry, and in the propheticdescriptions of the whoredoms of Israel with Baalim, and the generalanimadversions upon apostasy from the Lord, the transgression of thisprohibition is implicitly included; thus justifying the general expression,that God had forbidden the Israelites to contract such marriages, by Hisservants the prophets. Besides, we must here take into consideration the threatening of theprophets, that the Lord would thrust Israel out of the land for their sins,among which intermarriage with the Canaanites was by no means the least. Ezra, moreover, makes use of the general expression, "by the prophets,"because he desired to say that God had not merely forbidden thesemarriages one or twice in the law, but had also repeatedly inculcated thisprohibition by the prophets. The law was preached by the prophets whenthey reiterated what was the will of God as revealed in the law of Moses. In this respect Ezra might well designate the prohibition of the law as thesaying of the prophets, and cite it as pronounced according to thecircumstances of the Mosaic period.

(Note: It is hence evident that these words of Ezra afford no evidenceagainst the single authorship of the Pentateuch. The inference that asaying of the law, uttered during the wanderings in the wilderness, ishere cited as a saying of the prophets the servants of Jahve, is,according to the just remark of Bertheau, entirely refuted even by thefact that the words cited are nowhere found in the Pentateuch in thisexact form, and that hence Ezra did not intend to make a verbalquotation.)

The words: the land into which ye go, etc., recall the introduction of thelaw in Deu 7:1, etc.; but the description of the land as a land ofuncleanness through the uncleanness of the people, etc., does not read thuseither in the Pentateuch or in the prophets. נדּה , the uncleannessof women, is first applied to moral impurity by the prophets: comp. Lam 1:17; Eze 7:20; Eze 36:17, comp. Isa 64:5. The expression מפּה אל־פּה ,from edge to edge, i.e., from one end to the other, like לפה פּה , 2Ki 10:21; 2Ki 21:16, is taken from vessels filled to their upperrim. ועתּה introduces the consequence: and now, this being thecase. The prohibition וגו תּתּנוּ אל is worded after Deu 7:3. The addition: nor seek their peace, etc., is taken almost verbally fromDeu 23:7, where this is said in respect of the Ammonites and Moabites. תּחזקוּ למאן recalls Deu 11:8, and the promise: thatye may eat the good of the land for ever, Isa 1:19. לבניכם והורשׁתּם , and leave it for an inheritance to your children,does not occur in this form in the Pentateuch, but only the promise: thatthey and their children should possess the land for ever. On הורישׁ in this sense comp. Jdg 11:24; 2Ch 20:11.

Ezr 9:13-14

And after all, continues Ezra, taking up again the אחרי־זאת of Ezr 9:10, - "after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for ourgreat trespass - yea, Thou our God has spared us more than our iniquitydeserved, and hast given us this escaped remnant - can we again break Thycommandments, and join in affinity with the people of theseabominations? Wilt Thou not be angry with us even to extirpation, so thatno residue and no escaped remnant should be left?"The premiss in Ezr 9:13 is followed in Ezr 9:14 by the conclusion in the form of a question, while thesecond clause of Ezr 9:13 is an explanatory parenthesis. Bertheau construesthe passage otherwise. He finds the continuation of the sentence: and afterall this ... in the words וגו אתּה כּי , which, calmlyspoken, would read: Thou, O God, hast not wholly destroyed us, but hastpreserved to us an escaped remnant; while instead of such a continuationwe have an exclamation of grateful wonder, emphatically introduced by כּי in the sense of כּי אמנם . With this construction of the clauses, however, no advance is made, andEzra, in this prayer, does but repeat what he had already said, Ezr 9:8 and Ezr 9:9;although the introductory אהרי leads us to expect a newthought to close the confession. Then, too, the logical connection betweenthe question Ezr 9:14 and what precedes it would be wanting, i.e., afoundation of fact for the question Ezr 9:14. Bertheau remarks on Ezr 9:14, thatthe question: should we return to break (i.e., break again) the commands ofGod? is an antithesis to the exclamation. But neither does this question, tojudge by its matter, stand in contrast to the exclamation, nor is any suchcontrast indicated by its form. The discourse advances in regularprogression only when Ezr 9:14 forms the conclusion arrived at from Ezr 9:13 ,and the thought in the premiss (13 a ) is limited by the thoughts introducedwith כּי . What had come upon Israel for their sins was, according to Ezr 9:7,deliverance into the hand of heathen kings, to the sword, to captivity, etc. God had not, however, merely chastened and punished His people fortheir sins, He had also extended mercy to them, Ezr 9:8, etc. This, therefore, isalso mentioned by Ezra in Ezr 9:13 , to justify, or rather to limit, the כּל in כּל־הבּא . The כּי is properly confirmatory: for Thou,our God, hast indeed punished us, but not in such measure as our sins haddeserved; and receives through the tenor of the clause the adversativemeaning of imo , yea (comp. Ewald, §330, b ). למטּה מ חשׂכתּ , Thou hast checked, hast stopped, beneath ouriniquities. חשׂך is not used intransitively, but actively; themissing object must be supplied from the context: Thou hast withheldthat, all of which should have come upon us, i.e., the punishment wedeserved, or, as older expositors completed the sense, iram tuam . מעוננוּ למטּה , infra delicta nostra , i.e., Thouhast punished us less than our iniquities deserved. For their iniquities they had merited extirpation; but God had given them arescued remnant. כּזאת , as this, viz., this which exists in thecommunity now returned from Babylon to Judaea. This is thecircumstance which justifies the question: should we, or can we, again( נשׁוּב is used adverbially) break Thy commandments, andbecome related by marriage? ( חתחתּן like Deu 7:3.) התּעבות עמּי , people who live in abominations. Theanswer to this question is found in the subsequent question: will He not - if,after the sparing mercy we have experienced, we again transgress thecommands of God - by angry with us till He have consumed us? כּלּה עד (comp. 2Ki 13:17, 2Ki 13:19) is strengthened by theaddition: so that there will be no remnant and no escaping. The questionintroduced by הלוא is an expression of certain assurance: He willmost certainly consume us.

Ezr 9:15

"Jahve, God of Israel, Thou art righteous; for we remain anescaped remnant, as (it is) this day. Behold, we are before Thee in ourtrespass; for no one can stand before Thy face, because of this."Ezraappeals to the righteousness of God, not to supplicate pardon, as Neh 9:33, for the righteousness of God would impel Him to extirpate the sinfulnation, but to rouse the conscience of the community, to point out to themwhat, after this relapse into their old abominations, they had to expectfrom the justice of God. נשׁארנוּ כּי is confirmatory. God has shown Himself to be just by so sorely punishing this oncenumerous nation, that only a small remnant which has escaped destructionnow exists. And this remnant has again most grievously offended: we liebefore Thee in our trespass; what can we expect from Thy justice?Nothing but destruction; for there is no standing before Thee, i.e., no onecan stand before Thee, על־זאת , because of this (comp. Ezr 8:23; Ezr 10:2),i.e., because of the fresh guilt which we have incurred.

Constable: Ezr 7:1--10:44

II. THE SECOND RETURN UNDER EZRA chs. 7--10

A period of 58 years separates Ezra 6 from Ezra 7 (515-458 B.C.). During this time the events in the Book of Esther took place in Persia and, in particular, Susa, one of the Persian capitals.

Darius I (Hystaspes; 521-486 B.C.) became a very capable ruler who united the vast reaches of the Persian Empire under his control. He organized the empire effectively into 20 satrapies each of which functioned under a satrap appointed by the king. The satraps, who were usually from the Persian noble families, were virtual kings over their satrapies. They levied taxes and provided troops for the emperor.¹⁰⁰ Darius also built a huge palace at Persepolis, a canal that connected the Nile River with the Red Sea, and a system of roads that greatly facilitated travel and communication within the empire.¹⁰¹

". . . under Darius, Persia reached her zenith."¹⁰²

Darius' son, Xerxes I (486-464 B.C., known as Ahasuerus in Ezra 4:6 and the Book of Esther), succeeded this great king. He was not as successful as his father militarily. He was, however, able to subdue rebellions in Egypt and Babylon but lost a third of the Persian fleet to the Greeks and eventually had to withdraw Persian troops from Europe. He died at the hand of an assassin.

The next Persian king was Artaxerxes I (Longimanus; 464-424 B.C.), the younger son of Xerxes who killed his older brother to obtain the throne. During his reign the empire continued to decline in strength. The Greeks attacked Cyprus, Egypt rebelled, and parts of Asia Minor attained independence.

In Judah, the Persian providence of Yehud that was part of the larger satrapy of Eber Nari (lit. "beyond [i.e., west of] the [Euphrates] river"),¹⁰³ the Jews did not continue to fortify Jerusalem. They were content simply to worship at the temple. Their earlier zeal to return to the Mosaic ordinances that included separation from non-Jews waned. Over this 58-year period some of them intermarried with unbelieving Gentiles (9:1-2). Evidently the Levites neglected the teaching of the law (7:25; cf. Neh. 8:1-12), and temple worship became formal rather than sincere (7:23).

Constable: Ezr 9:1-15

1. The problem of mixed marriages ch. 9

Ezra soon discovered that some of the Jews who had been living in Judah for some time had begun to intermarry with Gentiles. This practice had led the Israelites into idolatry in the past. God had sent their forefathers into exile for their idolatry. This is the reason the mixed marriages disturbed Ezra. The underlying issue was purity of religion.

Constable: Ezr 9:5-15

Ezra's prayer 9:5-15

The priests presented the evening offering (v. 5) between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. in Jesus' day.¹³⁰ Ezra's prayer contains four primary characteristics: solidarity, confession, readiness to change, and faith in God's mercy.¹³¹

In his sermonic prayer Ezra identified himself with the body of believers even though he had not personally participated in their sin (cf. Dan. 9:4-19).

"In a time like today in which individuality is emphasized, people cannot always understand this attitude. For the Israelites, and later for the Jews, the Lord contracted a covenant with all the people and not only with individuals. All the people were responsible for the acts of every individual or group (cf. also Judg. 19-21)."¹³²

We enter into the blessing and discipline of others simply because we are part of the group to which we belong. Ezra's posture (v. 5) reflected his attitude of humility and submission to God.

Israel had departed from God's revealed will. Ezra confessed this as sin (vv. 6-7, 10). He also thanked God for His grace to the immigrants (vv. 8-9). The "peg" (v. 8) in view could refer to both the temple¹³³ and the returned exiles. These were the first small beginnings of larger establishment in the land that would follow, as the pounding in of a tent peg is the first step in erecting a tent. It was "a foothold."

"This is language from nomadic life, and it refers to a place reached after a long journey where a tent may be pitched."¹³⁴

"A little grace had been granted by God to his people; a small remnant had found its weary way back to its home and driven a single peg into its soil; a solitary ray of light was shining; a faint breath of freedom lightened their slavery."¹³⁵

Ezra summarized the teaching of former prophets in verses 11-12. Then he reflected on the destiny of the Israelites (vv. 13-15). He contrasted Israel's sin and guilt with God's holiness and righteousness. He made no request or promise. He just confessed the sin of the people and reflected on its significance.

This is one of the great prayers God recorded in the Old Testament (cf. 2 Chron. 6; Neh. 9; Dan. 9). It illustrates how a faithful individual should respond to the sins of the people among whom he or she lives.

Guzik: Ezr 9:1-15

Ezra 9 - Israel's Sin and Ezra's Confession

A. The problem is exposed.

1. (1-2) The leaders report to Ezra.

When these things were done, the leaders came to me, saying, "The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass."

a. The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands: After his arrival and the proper accounting of all the gifts brought from Babylonia, Ezra was presented with bad news. The spiritual condition of the post-exile community was bad and this was evident in their failure to separate from the pagan peoples that still populated the region.

i. "Feeble and isolated, the Jews were quite unable to resist the attacks of their jealous neighbors. Would it not be better to come to terms with them, and from enemies convert them into allies? Then the policy of exclusiveness involved commercial ruin; and men who knew how their brethren in Chaldea were enriching themselves by trade with the heathen were galled by a yoke which held them back from foreign intercourse." (Adeney)

b. For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons: Their failure to separate resulted in intermarriage with the surrounding pagan communities.

i. It wasn't that this intermarriage was the only problem; but as these communities intermarried, there would be no areas left untouched by pagan associations - business, government, social life. To allow intermarriage with idolaters was to allow all these other areas of compromise.

c. With respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites: This shows that the problem was not primarily ethnic. The problem was they did not separate themselves from these abominations, specifically the idolatry of these people.

i. "All this testified abhorrence, not merely of the act of having taken strange wives, but their having also joined them in their idolatrous abominations." (Clarke)

ii. With this forsaking of Jewish identity and the at least partial embrace of idolatry (or its toleration in the Jewish community), in a few generations there would cease to be any distinctive Jewish community in the Promised Land.

iii. Ezra 9:1-2 seems to recall passages from the Law of Moses against intermarriage with the surrounding Canaanite tribes - in particular, Exodus 34:11-16 and Deuteronomy 7:1-4. We may see this conviction of sin on the part of the people and their leaders, and the way that the conviction of sin was phrased, to indicate (spiritually speaking) that Ezra's arrival to bring the ministry of teaching God's word was bearing fruit. The people heard the word, looked at their lives, and saw that the two did not match.

iv. "During the obscure period that followed the dedication of the temple - a period of which we have no historical remains - the rigorous exclusiveness which had marked the conduct of the returned exiles when they rudely rejected the proposal of their Gentile neighbours to assist them in rebuilding the temple was abandoned, and freedom of intercourse went so far was to permit intermarriage with the descendants of the Canaanites." (Adeney)

d. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass: Worst of all, the leaders of the community were leaders (foremost) in this sin. They were leaders, but in the wrong direction.

i. "Leading aristocratic families were foremost in contracting the foreign alliances. It is such as they who would profit most, as it is such as they who would be most tempted to consider worldly motives and to forgo the austerity of their fathers." (Adeney)

2. (3) Ezra's complete astonishment.

So when I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked out some of the hair of my head and beard, and sat down astonished.

a. When I heard this thing: Ezra had just finished a dangerous four-month journey from Babylonia to Jerusalem. He had perhaps over-romanticized the spiritual commitment of the return-from-exile pioneers and had expected to find something completely different than the culture of compromise that he found.

b. And sat down astonished: Certainly one of the reasons for his mourning (expressed in the tearing of the garment and the plucking of the beard) was that Ezra remembered that it was these sins of idolatry and compromise that caused the tribes of Israel to be exiled before. He no doubt wondered how the people could endanger themselves like this again.

i. Astonished: "Means 'to be appalled or stupefied' . . . rare is the soul who is so shocked at disobedience that he is appalled. (The English word originally meant 'to make pale.')" (Yamauchi)

ii. Both Ezra and Nehemiah were confronted with the sin of pagan intermarriage. Nehemiah responded by plucking out the hair of the guilty (Nehemiah 13:25); Ezra responded by plucking out his own hair.

iii. "It has been truly said that communion with the Lord dries many tears, but it starts many more." (Meyer)

4. (4) Ezra is joined by others who were also grieved at Israel's sin

Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel assembled to me, because of the transgression of those who had been carried away captive, and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice.

a. Everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel assembled: There were those in the community who were also horrified at the sin of their community. These (who were marked by their respect for God's word) assembled together with Ezra.

b. Because of the transgression of those who had been carried away captive: This was an interesting title to give to those who had sinned. In a historical sense they were among the captives who returned from Babylonia (though many or most of them were actually born in Judea). Yet in a real spiritual sense they were carried away captive by their sin of partnership with idolaters and idolatry.

i. Sat down astonished: "Partly for grief and shame at the sin; and partly for fear of some great and dreadful judgment which he expected and feared for it." (Poole)

B. The prayer of Ezra.

1. (5-6) Ezra's sense of shame.

At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God. And I said: "O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens."

a. At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting: Ezra knew there was a time to mourn and he did that for a long time. He also knew that there was a time to pray, and now he would begin his prayer.

i. i. "The 'evening sacrifice' took place about three P.M. (cf. Exodus 12:6; Acts 3:1). The informants had probably visited Ezra in the morning, so that he must have sat in this position for many hours. The time of the evening sacrifice was also the appointed time for prayer and confession." (Yamauchi)

ii. As Ezra prayed, he alone prayed - yet because he stood before an assembly of the people of God, there was a sense in which he led them in prayer. "The officiating minister is not merely to pray before the congregation, while the people kneel as silent auditors. His prayer is designed to guide and help their prayers, so that there may be 'common prayer' throughout the whole assembly." (Adeney)

b. Fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God: Ezra was one of many in the Bible who prayed on his knees.

i. Solomon prayed on his knees (1 Kings 8:54), the Psalmist called us to kneel (Psalm 95:6), Daniel prayed on his knees (Daniel 6:10), people came to Jesus kneeling (Matthew 17:14, Matthew 20:20, Mark 1:40), Stephen prayed on his knees (Acts 7:60), Peter prayed on his knees (Acts 9:40), Paul prayed on his knees (Acts 20:36, Ephesians 3:14), and other early Christians prayed on their knees (Acts 21:5). Most importantly, Jesus prayed on His knees (Luke 22:41). The Bible has enough prayer not on the knees to show us that it isn't required, but it also has enough prayer on the knees to show us that it is good.

ii. Ezra also spread out his hands to the LORD. This was the most common posture of prayer in the Old Testament. Many modern people close their eyes, bow their head, and fold their hands as they pray, but the Old Testament tradition was to spread out the hands toward heaven in a gesture of surrender, openness, and ready reception. "With the palms open toward heaven, in a having, craving way, as beggars. This was the Jewish manner of praying, and it was very becoming." (Trapp)

c. I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You: Though Ezra's hands were raised his face was down in shame and humiliation before the LORD. He sense that the sins of the people of Israel had weighed his head down so much that he could not lift his head (our iniquities have risen higher than our heads).

i. Ashamed and humiliated: According to Yamauchi, there is a difference in these two ancient Hebrew words. The first speaks of being ashamed; the second of "the pain that accompanies shame."

ii. "God had been so often provoked, and had so often pardoned them and they had continued to transgress, that he was ashamed to go back again to the throne of grace to ask for mercy in their behalf. This is the genuine feeling of every reawakened backslider." (Clarke)

d. Our iniquities have risen higher than our heads: Significantly, Ezra prayed saying "our iniquities" instead of "their iniquities." Ezra had just arrived to this community and he had not shared any kind of life or conduct with them. Yet he knew that because they were bound together in the same covenant before God, their iniquities were in fact his.

2. (7-9) Ezra remembers God's past kindness to Israel in spite of their sins.

"Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as it is this day. And now for a little while grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem."

a. We have been very guilty: Ezra recognized the generally sinful past of the tribes of Israel, and how their exile was a righteous work of God against His sinful people.

b. And now for a little while grace has been shown: Ezra then reflected on the remarkable goodness of God in bringing a remnant of His people back from exile and allowing them to live in the Promised Land again.

c. To give us a peg in His holy place: The idea is that Israel once again had a safe position, a standing in God's favor and in His temple. In those days, houses didn't really have cupboards or storage closets as we think of them. Things were stored on pegs set up all around the room. If something was on its peg, it was safe and secure, stored properly and ready for use at the appropriate time.

i. Only a few days before this, Ezra had seen the temple for the first time in his life. He was impressed that God had given His people a peg in His holy place once again, and was therefore afraid that their casual disregard for this blessing would once again stir up the righteous anger of God.

d. And give us a measure of revival in our bondage: Ezra rejoiced to see even a measure of revival, and knew that this was an emblem of God's mercy and favor that should not be despised with disobedience and compromise.

e. To revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall: Ezra was impressed by all these signs of God's mercy and favor to His people, signs he had only seen a few days before for the first time. It made him appreciate how good God had been to His people, and how dangerous it was for them to sin and compromise in response to His goodness.

i. "Some critics take this reference to a wall as an argument for the priority of Nehemiah over Ezra, assuming an allusion to the wall the Nehemiah had repaired in his day. But most scholars agree that the reference here is not to be taken literally." (Yamauchi)

ii. To give us a wall: "They had the fence of the king of Persia's favour. They had also God's providence, as a hedge or wall of fire round about them." (Trapp)

iii. "The Jewish commentator Slotki (p. 166) observes poignantly: 'A little grace had been granted by God to his people; a small remnant had found its weary way back to its home and driven a single peg into its soil; a solitary ray of light was shining; a faint breath of freedom lightened their slavery. How graphically Ezra epitomizes Jewish experience in these few words!'" (Yamauchi)

3. (10-14) Ezra fears that God's people are testing His mercy.

"And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, which You commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, 'The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land, with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their impurity. Now therefore, do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons; and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.' And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this, should we again break Your commandments, and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? Would You not be angry with us until You had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant or survivor?"

a. What shall we say after this? Ezra offers no excuses and not even an explanation. Their conduct was indefensible and a direct disobedience to what God command by His servants the prophets.

i. That you may be strong: "Although you may fancy that this way of making leagues and marriages with them is the only way to establish and settle you, yet I assure you it will weaken and ruin you and the contrary course will make you stronger." (Poole)

b. You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve: As severe as the exile was, Ezra recognized that it was less than what the people of God deserved. As he looked at their present disobedience, he understood that it was a way of despising the great mercy God had shown in the past and made them deserving of a complete and final judgment.

i. As the tribes of Israel piled sin upon sin before the fall of the northern and southern kingdoms, God still showed remarkable mercy to them. He did not have to preserve them at in exile; there could have been genocide instead. As well, He did not have to bring them back from exile into the Promised Land once again. Each of these was a wonderful example of God's mercy in the midst of judgment.

ii. "It is a fine revelation of the only attitude in which any man can become a mediator. There is first an overwhelming sense of sin. This is accompanied, and perhaps caused by, that deeper sense of the righteousness and grace of God. It finds expression in agonized and unsparing confession. The passion of the whole movement is evidence of its reality." (Morgan)

4. (15) Ezra calls upon the mercy of God.

"O LORD God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before You, in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this!"

a. O LORD God of Israel: Here Ezra wisely appealed to the LORD as the God of Israel. Though they had been unfaithful to Him, Ezra still hoped for covenant mercies from the LORD because He was their God.

b. You are righteous: Ezra also wisely appealed to God's righteousness, especially in leaving a remnant in fulfillment of His prior promises (2 Chronicles 30:6; Isaiah 10:20-22).

i. "Ezra is far too much in earnest simply to wish to help his people to escape from the consequences of their conduct. This would not be salvation. It would be moral shipwreck. The great need is to be saved from the evil conduct itself." (Adeney)

c. Here we are before You in our guilt: Ezra wisely did not claim an excuse or a reason for their sin. Israel had sinned and they were guilty. The appeal must be made for mercy to the guilty, not as a favor to the deserving (or semi-deserving).

i. We note here that Ezra also did not claim special circumstances or did not tell God that their difficult environment made their present compromise understandable, or that all their other good works or faithfulness somehow excused their idolatry. He simply realized that no one can stand before You because of this!

ii. "Ezra had not even the heart to plead, as Moses had, that God's name would suffer in such a case. His prayer was naked confession, without excuses, without the pressure of so much as a request." (Kidner)

© 2006 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Ezra (Book Introduction)

EZRA was, along with Nehemiah, reckoned one book by the ancient Jews, who called them the First and Second Books of Ezra, and they are still designated by Roman Catholic writers the First and Second Books of Esdras. This book naturally divides itself into two parts or sections, the one contained in the first six chapters, and which relates the circumstances connected with the return of the first detachment of Babylonish exiles under Zerubbabel with the consequent rebuilding of the temple and the re-establishment of the divine service. The other part, embraced in the four concluding chapters, narrates the journey of a second caravan of returning captives under the conduct of Ezra himself, who was invested with powers to restore, in all its splendor, the entire system of the Jewish ritual. The general opinion of the Church in every succeeding age has been that Ezra was the author of this book. The chief objection is founded on Ezr 5:4, where the words, "Then said we unto them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building?" have occasioned a surmise that the first portion of the book was not written by Ezra, who did not go to Jerusalem for many years after. But a little attention will show the futility of this objection, as the words in question did not refer to the writer, but were used by Tatnai and his associates [Ezr 5:3]. The style and unity of object in the book clearly prove it to have been the production of but one author. The canonical authority of this book is well established; but another under the name of Ezra is rejected as apocryphal.

JFB: Ezra (Outline)

• PROCLAMATION OF CYRUS FOR BUILDING THE TEMPLE. (Ezr 1:1-6)
• CYRUS RESTORES THE VESSELS. (Ezr 1:7-11)
• NUMBER OF THE PEOPLE THAT TURNED. (Ezra 2:1-70)
• THE ALTAR SET UP. (Ezr 3:1-13)
• OFFERINGS RENEWED. (Ezr 3:4-7)
• THE FOUNDATION OF THE TEMPLE LAID. (Ezr 3:8-13)
• THE BUILDING HINDERED. (Ezr 4:1-6)
• LETTER TO ARTAXERXES. (Ezra 4:7-24)
• ZERUBBABEL AND JESHUA SET FORWARD THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE IN THE REIGN OF DARIUS. (Ezra 5:1-17)
• DARIUS' DECREE FOR ADVANCING THE BUILDING. (Ezr 6:1-12)
• THE TEMPLE FINISHED. (Ezr 6:13-15)
• FEASTS OF THE DEDICATION. (Ezr 6:16-18)
• AND OF THE PASSOVER. (Ezr 6:19-22)
• EZRA GOES UP TO JERUSALEM. (Ezr 7:1-10)
• GRACIOUS COMMISSION OF ARTAXERXES. (Ezra 7:11-26)
• EZRA BLESSES GOD FOR THIS FAVOR. (Ezr 7:27-28)
• EZRA'S COMPANIONS FROM BABYLON. (Ezr 8:1-14)
• HE SENDS TO IDDO FOR MINISTERS FOR THE TEMPLE SERVICE. (Ezr 8:15-20)
• A FAST PROCLAIMED. (Ezra 8:21-36)
• EZRA MOURNS FOR THE AFFINITY OF THE PEOPLE WITH STRANGERS. (Ezr 9:1-4)
• EZRA REFORMS THE STRANGE MARRIAGES. (Ezra 10:1-17)
• THOSE THAT HAD TAKEN STRANGE WIVES. (Ezra 10:18-44)

TSK: Ezra (Book Introduction)

This book details the events of a very interesting period of the Sacred History, when, according to the decree of Providence, the Jewish people were to be delivered from their captivity, at the expiration of seventy years, and restored to the land of their fathers. This book informs us how the Divine goodness accomplished this most gracious design, and the movers and agents He employed on the occasion. Ezra was undoubtedly the chief agent under God in effecting this arduous work; and his zeal, piety, knowledge, and discretion, appear here in a most conspicuous point of view, and claim our utmost admiration. Descended from Seraiah, in a direct line from Aaron, he seems to have united all the requisites of a profound statesmen with the functions of the sacerdotal character. He appears to have made the Sacred Scriptures, during the captivity, his peculiar study; and, perhaps assisted by Nehemiah and the great synagogue, he corrected the errors which had crept into the Sacred Writings, through the negligence or mistake of transcribers; he collected all the books of which the Sacred Scriptures then consisted, disposed them in their proper order, and settled the canon of Scriptures for his time; he occasionally added, under the dictation of the Holy Spirit, whatever appeared necessary for the purpose of illustrating, completing, or connecting them; he substituted the modern for the ancient names of some places, which had now become obsolete; and transcribed the whole of the Scriptures into the Chaldee character. He is said to have lived to the age of 120 years, and, according to Josephus, was buried in Jerusalem; but the Jews believe he died in Persia, in a second journey to Artaxerxes, where his tomb is shown in the city of Zamusa. Though not styled a prophet, he wrote under the Divine Spirit; and the canonical authority of his book has never been disputed. It is written with all the spirit and fidelity that could be displayed by a writer of contemporary times; and those parts which chiefly consist of letters, decrees, etc., are written in Chaldee, because it seemed more suitable to the fidelity of a sacred historian to give these official documents, as they may be termed, in the original language, especially as the people, recently returned from the captivity, were familiar, and perhaps more conversant with the Chaldee, than with the Hebrew.

TSK: Ezra 9 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Ezr 9:1, Ezra mourns for the affinity of the people with strangers; Ezr 9:5, He prays unto God, with confession of sins.

Poole: Ezra (Book Introduction)

THE ARGUMENT

THAT this book of EZRA is part of the canonical Scripture is evident, partly from the testimony of the Jewish church, to which were committed the oracles of God , Rom 3:2 , who also did carefully keep them, and faithfully transmit them to us, and are not once charged either by Christ or his apostles with breach of that trust; and partly by the unanimous consent of all, both Jews and Christians, at this day. And that Ezra was thee writer of this book, is also, and ever was, the opinion of the Jews, who had thee best means of knowing this, and is most agreeable to his quality, for he was the son, or grandson , (as the word is elsewhere used,) of Seraiah , Ezr 7:1 , who was the high priest, 2Ki 25:18 1Ch 6:14 ; and he was a ready scribe of the law of Moses , Ezr 7:6 , and endowed with a more than ordinary measure of God’ s Spirit, as is evident from this book; and was himself an eye-witness of these transactions. In his time also there lived divers other holy men of God, as Daniel, and Nehemiah, and Mordecai, and Zorobabel, and Joshua; which makes that probable which the Jews report, that these prophets and other holy and learned men did review thee canonical books of the Old Testament, and added here and there some few passages in the historical books, and digested them into that order in which now we have them in our Hebrew Bibles; this being a work most suitable to the prudence, and piety, and sacred function of these persons, and to the present estate of the Jewish nation, who had been long in captivity in Babylon, where it was to be feared that many of them were ignorant or corrupt in the principles of religion, and who were yet in a broken condition, and likely to be exposed to further calamities and dispersions; which also might be signified to some of them; and it was suitable also to that care which the wise and gracious God hath ever used for the guidance of his church, according to their several occasions and necessities.

Poole: Ezra 9 (Chapter Introduction)

CHAPTER 9

Ezra and others, hearing of the unlawful marriage of the people with strangers, mourn for it, Ezr 9:1-4 . He prayeth unto God, and confesseth their sins, and particularly this, Ezr 9:5-15 .

MHCC: Ezra (Book Introduction)

The history of this book is the accomplishment of Jeremiah's prophecy concerning the return of the Jews out of Babylon. From its contents we especially learn, that every good work will meet with opposition from enemies, and be hurt by the misconduct of friends; but that God will make his cause to prevail, notwithstanding all obstacles and adversaries. The restoration of the Jews was an event of the highest consequence, tending to preserve religion in the world, and preparing the way for the appearance of the Great Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ.

MHCC: Ezra 9 (Chapter Introduction)

(Ezr 9:1-4) Ezra mourns for the Jews' conduct.

(Ezr 9:5-15) Ezra's confession of sins.

Matthew Henry: Ezra (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Book of Ezra

The Jewish church puts on quite another face in this book from what it had appeared with; its state much better, and more pleasant, than it was of late in Babylon, and yet far inferior to what it had been formerly. The dry bones here live again, but in the form of a servant; the yoke of their captivity is taken off, but the marks of it in their galled necks remain. Kings we hear no more of; the crown has fallen from their heads. Prophets they are blessed with, to direct them in their re-establishment, but, after a while, prophecy ceases among them, till the great prophet appears, and his fore-runner. The history of this book is the accomplishment of Jeremiah's prophecy concerning the return of the Jews out of Babylon at the end of seventy years, and a type of the accomplishment of the prophecies of the Apocalypse concerning the deliverance of the gospel church out of the New Testament Babylon. Ezra preserved the records of that great revolution and transmitted them to the church in this book. His name signifies a helper; and so he was to that people. A particular account concerning him we shall meet with, ch. 7, where he himself enters upon the stage of action. The book gives us an account, I. Of the Jews' return out of their captivity, Ezr 1:1-11, 2. II. Of the building of the temple, the opposition it met with, and yet the perfecting of it at last, ch. 3-6. III. Of Ezra's coming to Jerusalem, ch. 7, 8. IV. Of the good service he did there, in obliging those that had married strange wives to put them away, Ezr 9:1-15, 10. This beginning again of the Jewish nation was small, yet its latter end greatly increased.

Matthew Henry: Ezra 9 (Chapter Introduction)

The affairs of the church were in a very good posture, we may well suppose, now that Ezra presided in them. Look without; the government was kind to them. We hear no complaints of persecution and oppression; their enemies had either their hearts turned or at least their hands tied; their neighbours were civil, and we hear of no wars nor rumours of wars; there were none to make them afraid; all was as well as could be, considering that they were few, and poor, and subjects to a foreign prince. Look at home; we hear nothing of Baal, or Ashtaroth, nor Moloch, no images, nor groves, nor golden calves, no, nor so much as high places (not only no idolatrous altars, but no separate ones), but the temple was duly respected and the temple service carefully kept up. Yet all was not well either. The purest ages of the church have had some corruptions, and it will never be presented " without spot or wrinkle" till it is " a glorious church," a church " triumphant," Eph 5:27. We have here, I. A complaint brought to Ezra of the many marriages that had been made with strange wives (Ezr 9:1, Ezr 9:2). II. The great trouble which he, and others influenced by his example, were in upon this information (Ezr 9:3, Ezr 9:4). III. The solemn confession which he made of this sin to God, with godly sorrow, and shame (Ezr 9:5-15).

Constable: Ezra (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Title

The title in the English text comes from the main character in the second part of the book (chapters 7-10). In the Septuagint translation this book also bore the name of Ezra or Esdras, the Greek transliteration of "Ezra." "Ezra" is a short form of Azariah, which means "Yahweh has helped." The Hebrew Bible has the same title.

Early Hebrew copyists placed Ezra together with Nehemiah because Nehemiah continues the history of Ezra.¹ Another reason they may have done this was to make the total number of canonical books agree with the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.² Another view is that they were written originally as one book and than divided later.³ Even today the Hebrew Bible links Ezra and Nehemiah as did the Septuagint translators. However the repetition of Ezra 2 in Nehemiah 6:7-70 suggests that these two books were not originally one. Evidently Origen (third century A.D.) was the first to divide Ezra-Nehemiah into two books, and Jerome followed this precedent in his Latin (Vulgate) translation.⁴

Writer and Date

Due to the ancient tradition that the same writer composed both parts of the book (chapters 1-6 and 7-10), many scholars believe Ezra produced all of it.⁵ A passage in the Talmud credits Ezra with the authorship of Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles.⁶ Ezra speaks in the first person in Ezra 7:28-8:34 and in chapter 9. This may suggest that he drew from a source such as the so-called "Ezra Memoirs" that recorded Ezra's personal recollections in the first person.⁷

Another popular view is that Ezra and Nehemiah each wrote the books that bear their names.⁸ A third view is that the joint book was a compilation that a "chronicler" made long after the events recorded took place.⁹

As a scribe (7:21), Ezra had the qualifications needed to write this book. He was a general contemporary of Nehemiah (Neh. 8:1-9; 12:36). Another reference in the Talmud claimed that Ezra was a disciple of Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe.¹⁰

The last historical reference in the book is in 4:21-23. In view of other chronological references in the book this event must have occurred about 446 B.C. Therefore Ezra could have written the book about 446 B.C. or shortly after that.

"Regardless of one's view of the authorship of Ezra-Nehemiah and its relationship to Chronicles, the theological viewpoint of the whole collection is essentially the same. The message is addressed to the postexilic community of Jews who wonder if there is any hope of political and religious restoration. Its central thrust is that there indeed is hope but that hope must be incarnated in the rebuilding of the Temple, the cultus, and the priesthood. Only as the remnant people became the theocratic nation, founded on and faithful to the covenant Yahweh made with their fathers, could they revive the Davidic house and anticipate the resumption of their mediatorial role among the nations of the earth. Ezra and Nehemiah are therefore burdened to clarify (1) the Person and works of God, (2) Israel's own identity and function as a covenant people, and (3) the nature of that covenant in postexilic times."¹¹

Scope

The earliest historical reference in Ezra is to the decree of Cyrus that he issued in his first year on the throne (1:1), 538 B.C.¹² The latest historical reference was just prior to Nehemiah's first trip to Jerusalem (4:21-23; cf. Neh. 1:1-3), 446 B.C. Therefore this book spans a period of 92 years of history.¹³

However most of the events recorded took place in 538-515 B.C. (chapters 1-6) and 458 B.C. (chapters 7-10). Between these two separate series of events the Book of Ezra records nothing. The events in the Book of Esther transpired during those years (482-473 B.C.).

Message¹⁴

Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther have much in common. Among other things, they all deal with God's dealings with Israel following the captivity. Jeremiah had spoken of these years before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem (Jer. 25:11-14; 29:10-14). Now 70 years had passed, Babylon had fallen, and Cyrus was on the throne of Medo-Persia. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther all reveal God overruling human failure. They show God remaking the vessel that had proven obstinate, Israel (cf. Jer. 18:1-6).

The Book of Ezra reveals four things about God's dealings with Israel that are of permanent value.

1. God's instruments are very diverse. In shaping Israel again God used instruments outside the nation as well as inside it.

His primary instruments outside were Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes. Each one issued a decree that God had inspired just as much as any message of Isaiah or any of the other prophets of Israel (e.g., 1:1-4). God turned the hearts of these kings in the direction He wanted them to go (cf. Prov. 21:1). God directed the marching of their armies as well as the praying of the captives to accomplish His will.

His primary instruments inside the nation of Israel were Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and Ezra. Zerubbabel was a descendant of King Jehoiachin, and Jeshua was a descendant of Aaron. Thus God raised up a member of the kingly family and a member of the priestly family to resume His dealings with the nation as formerly. They began to inspire other Israelites, and the movement to return was under way. The third Israelite instrument was Ezra who was a scribe. We begin here to read of the scribes who are prominent in the Gospels. A scribe was a student, interpreter, teacher, and expositor of the Word of God. God uses both people who do not know Him and people who do know Him to carry out His plans.

2. God's might is awesome, another clear revelation in this book. We see this not only in the way God uses the two kinds of people just differentiated. We see it in the way He qualifies His workers to accomplish their tasks, as I have noted. We also see it in God's gathering His people from all over the ancient world to bring them back into Palestine. Most of the exiles did not return. Ezra's revelation provided the original readers with hope for the future.

3. God's people are changeable, another significant revelation. God gathered people from all the tribes, not just Judah, back to the land (2:70; 6:16-17). In exile the Israelites had renounced idolatry. They had returned to the worship of the one true God. The Lord's severe punishment of them for idolatry, as well as their own observation of idolatry for 70 years, took away their appetite for it. God had purged out this dross and could now fashion the nation anew.

4. God's work is proceeding, another important revelation. Note what God did to the nation. When the people returned to Palestine they had lost their national influence. They could not demonstrate how glorious it is to live under God's government as they had formerly. They also lost their independence. However they gained a place for themselves as a nation again. Furthermore God had saved them from racial extinction and absorption. The Pharisees (lit. separated ones) came into existence during the captivity. They wanted to prevent the Jews from intermixing with others. That attitude was good then, but it became bad later. In all these respects we can see God's work of reshaping the nation.

The message of the book arises from these observations on its emphases. I could state it this way. God does not discard what He has chosen but remakes it when it fails.

With people if one fails, he is out. With God if a person fails, he gets other opportunities. This is how God dealt with Jonah. It is how He dealt with Israel. Moreover it is how He deals with us. This is a great testimony to the eternal security of the believer. When the vessel is unyielding, God crushes it and begins to fashion it into a useful vessel again. That is a greater evidence of God's sovereignty than if He discarded it as hopeless. God's reason for doing this is His loyal love, compassion, and pity.

This revelation brings hope to everyone who fails. It gives hope when our good causes fall to pieces. It gives hope when God's servants fail. It also gives hope when we make a mess. God is still on His throne (cf. Hag. 2:4-5). No matter how you may have failed in the past God will use you if you renounce your sin, re-commit yourself to Him, and return to His Word.

Constable: Ezra (Outline)

Outline

I. The first return under Sheshbazzar chs. 1-6

A. The return from Babylon chs. 1-2

1. The edict of Cyrus and its consequences ch. 1

2. The exiles who returned ch. 2

B. The rebuilding of the temple chs. 3-6

1. The beginning of construction ch. 3

2. The opposition to construction ch. 4

3. The delay of construction ch. 5

4. The completion of construction ch. 6

II. The second return under Ezra chs. 7-10

A. The return to Jerusalem ch. 7-8

1. The decree of Artaxerxes and its consequences ch. 7

2. The journey itself ch. 8

B. The restoration of the people chs. 9-10

1. The problem of mixed marriages ch. 9

2. The solution to the problem ch. 10

Constable: Ezra

Ezra

Bibliography

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Ezra (Book Introduction)

THE FIRST BOOK OF ESDRAS.

INTRODUCTION.

This Book taketh its name from the writer, who was a holy priest and doctor of the law. He is called by the Hebrews Ezra, (Challoner) and was son, (Tirinus) or rather, unless he lived above 150 years, a descendant of Saraias, 4 Kings xxv. 18. It is thought that he returned first with Zorobabel; and again, at the head of other captives, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, with ample authority. Esdras spent the latter part of his life in exhorting the people, and in explaining to them the law of God. He appeared with great dignity at the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem, 2 Esdras xii. 26, 35. We have four books which bear his name. (Calmet) --- This and the following book of Nehemias, originally made but one in Hebrew, (St. Jerome, &c.) as the transactions of both those great men are recorded. The third and fourth are not in Hebrew nor received into the canon of the Holy Scriptures, though the Greek Church hold the third as canonical, and place it first; (Worthington) and Genebrard would assert that both ought to be received, as they were by several Fathers. But they contain many thing which appear to be erroneous, and have been rejected by others of great authority, and particularly by St. Jerome. The third book seems to have been written very early, by some Hellenist Jew, who was desirous of embellishing the history of Zorobabel; and the fourth was probably composed by some person of the same nation, who had been converted to Christianity, before the end of the second century; and who injudiciously attempted to convert his brethren, by assuming the name of a man who was so much respected. Many things have been falsely attributed to Esdras, on the same account. It is said that he invented the Masora; restored the Scriptures, which had been lost; fixed the canon of twenty-two books; substituted the Chaldaic characters instead of the ancient Hebrew, Samaritan, or Phœnician. But though Esdras might sanction the latter, now become common, the characters might vary insensibly, (Bianconi; Kennicott, Dis. ii.) as those of other languages have done, (Haydock) and the sacred books never perished wholly; nor could the canon be determined in the time of Esdras. (Calmet) --- As for the Masoretic observations and points, they are too modern an invention. (Elias Levita; Capel.; Houbigant, &c.) --- What we know more positively of Esdras, is, (Worthington) that he was empowered by Artaxerxes to bring back the Jews, and that he acted with great zeal. (Haydock) --- This book contains the transactions of 82 years, till the year of the world 3550. The letter of Reum, and the king's answer, (chap. iv. 7., till chap. vi. 19., and well as chap. vii. 12, 27.) are in Chaldean; the rest of the work is in Hebrew. (Calmet) --- We may discover various mysteries concealed under the literal sense of this and the following book. (St. Jerome, ep. ad Paulin.) (Worthington) --- Esdras is supposed by this holy doctor, as well as by some of the Rabbins, &c., to have been the same person with the prophet Malachy[Malachias]; (Button) and several reasons seems to support this conjecture, though it must still remain very uncertain. (Calmet) --- Some think that (Haydock) Esdras wrote only the four last chapters, and the author of Paralipomenon the six preceding ones. (Du Hamel) --- But it is most probable that he compiled both from authentic documents. (Haydock) --- Some few additions may have been inserted since, by divine authority, 2 Esdras xii. 11, 22. (Tirinus)

Gill: Ezra (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO EZRA

This book, in the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions, is called the "First" Book of Ezra, Nehemiah being reckoned the "second"; but with the Jews both were accounted but one book ^a; in the Syriac version, it is called the Writing or Book of Ezra the Prophet; and this title is given him, both by Jews ^b and Christians ^c; in the Arabic version, it is called the First Book of Ezra the Priest, skilful in the Law; and that he was a priest is clear, since he was the son of Seraiah the high priest, who was slain by Nebuchadnezzar, and the younger brother of Josedech, who succeeded his father as high priest, and uncle to Joshua that succeeded him; and he was also a ready scribe in the law of Moses, see Ezr 7:1. That Ezra was the writer of this book is believed by the Jews ^d, and by the generality of Christians; only Huetius ^e thinks that the six first chapters were written by another hand, but his reasons are not satisfactory; and it has been universally received as canonical by all; it agrees with the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, and serves to illustrate them; it is of use for the continuation of the sacred history, to point at the fulfilment of prophecies concerning the return of the Jews from captivity, and the rebuilding of the temple; and to give us an account of the state of the church in those times, the troubles and difficulties it met with, and what care was taken to keep the tribes and families distinct, that it might be known from whom the Messiah sprung; this book contains an history of seventy years, according to the calculation of Bishop Usher ^f, from A. M. 3468, to A. M. 3538.

Gill: Ezra 9 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO EZRA 9

Ezra being informed, by some of the princes who complained unto him, of the marriages of many of the Israelites with the people of the land, the Canaanites and others, was greatly grieved and distressed, Ezr 9:1, upon which he made a confession of their sins to God, with great shame, sorrow, and contrition, and deprecated the evils which they deserved, Ezr 9:6.