CHAPTER 9

(457 B.C.)

SIN IS DISCOVERED AND SORROW EXPRESSED

¹Now when these things were done (speaking of the things in the previous Verses), the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the Priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, and Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites (the matter of the involvement of the people of Israel, as few as they were in the Land at that time, with the heathen around them, regarding abominations, was serious).

²For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons (of the heathen): so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yes, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass (the term holy seed does not, in effect, say that the people committing these sins were holy, but rather that this is the designation that the Lord had given them as a people, and what He intended them to be, whether they were, in fact, that or not).

³And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied (astonished; rending the clothes was one of the most common Oriental modes of showing grief).

⁴Then were assembled unto me every one who trembled at the Words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those who had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice (Ezra chose the time of the evening Sacrifice [3 p.m.] to confess his sin and the sin of the nation, for the poured-out blood of the Sacrifices proclaimed forgiveness and atonement; divinely inspired Repentance always brings the soul to Calvary).

EZRAS PRAYER AND CONFESSION OF SIN

⁵And at the evening Sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God (the time of the Sacrifice, which represented the Cross, was the appropriate time for prayer, especially regarding prayer in which acknowledgment of sin was to form a large part),

⁶And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to You, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens (Ezra, by the use of the pronoun our, includes himself in this prayer of Repentance, as he also pleads for the entirety of Israel).

⁷Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our Priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day (Ezra goes straight to the point, labeling sin as the problem, as it regarded Israel, and all others for that matter, and for all time).

⁸And now for a little space grace has been showed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in His Holy Place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage (the entirety of the statement given in this Verse proclaims the fact that Ezra is not claiming a full restoration; in other words, by his statement, he is saying that any Grace will be appreciated, for the truth is, they deserve no Grace at all).

⁹For we were bondmen; yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the House of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem (the phrase, For we were bondmen, should have been translated, For we are bondmen; the Jews had not recovered their independence and, in fact, would not do so; even now, the modern State of Israel is limited, and we speak of the Arabs, which occupy a good part of the Land of Israel).

¹⁰And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken Your Commandments (this Verse speaks to the fact that, when sin is committed, it is always, and without exception, against God),

¹¹Which You have commanded by Your servants the Prophets, saying, The land, unto which you go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness (in his prayer, Ezra is speaking of the corrupt character of the Canaanitish nations which formerly occupied the Land that later came to be called Israel).

¹²Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever (Ezra is quoting, at least in part, Deut. 7:3).

¹³And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this (the Lord always punishes less than we deserve; we should always remember this);

¹⁴Should we again break Your Commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? would not You be angry with us till You had consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? (Sadly, Israel did again fail the Lord, and did so miserably! They joined Rome and the abomination of the Crucifixion of Christ, which was the most horrifying abomination of all. As a result, the entire nation was destroyed, which took place in A.D. 70, and is only now beginning to come back, which began in 1948.)

¹⁵O LORD God of Israel, You are righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before You in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before You because of this (Righteousness, in its widest sense, includes Mercy; and so the meaning here may be, You are good and gracious, of which Your having spared us is a proof).