Ezra 9

Ezr 9:1-4.

EZRA

MOURNS FOR THE

AFFINITY OF THE

PEOPLE WITH

STRANGERS.

1, 2. Now when these things were done--The first days after Ezra's

arrival in Jerusalem were occupied in executing the different trusts

committed to him. The nature and design of the office with which the

royal authority had invested him was publicly made known to his own

people by the formal delivery of the contribution and the sacred

vessels brought from Babylon to the priests to be deposited in the

temple. Then his credentials were privately presented to the provincial

governors; and by this prudent, orderly proceeding he put himself in

the best position to avail himself of all the advantages guaranteed him

his patriotic feelings in the apparently flourishing state of the

church and country. But a further acquaintance discovered the existence

of great corruptions, which demanded immediate correction. One was

particularly brought under his notice as being the source and origin of

all others; namely, a serious abuse that was practised respecting the

law of marriage.

the princes came to me, saying--The information they lodged with Ezra

was to the effect that numbers of the people, in violation of the

divine law

(De 7:2, 3),

had contracted marriages with Gentile women, and that the guilt of the

disorderly practice, far from being confined to the lower classes, was

shared in by several of the priests and Levites, as well as of the

leading men in the country. This great irregularity would inevitably

bring many evils in its train; it would encourage and increase

idolatry, as well as break down the barriers of distinction which, for

important purposes, God had raised between the Israelites and all other

people. Ezra foresaw these dangerous consequences, but was overwhelmed

with a sense of the difficulty of correcting the evil, when matrimonial

alliances had been formed, families had been reared, affections

engaged, and important interests established.

3. when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle,

&c.--the outer and inner garment, which was a token not only of great

grief, but of dread at the same time of the divine wrath;

plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard--which was a still

more significant sign of overpowering grief.

4. Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of

the God of Israel, &c.--All the pious people who reverenced God's word

and dreaded its threatenings and judgments joined with Ezra in

bewailing the public sin, and devising the means of redressing it.

I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice--The intelligence of so

gross a violation of God's law by those who had been carried into

captivity on account of their sins, and who, though restored, were yet

unreformed, produced such a stunning effect on the mind of Ezra that he

remained for a while incapable either of speech or of action. The hour

of the evening sacrifice was the usual time of the people assembling;

and at that season, having again rent his hair and garments, he made

public prayer and confession of sin.

Ezr 9:5-15.

PRAYS TO

GOD.

5-15. I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my

God--The burden of his prayer, which was dictated by a deep sense

of the emergency, was that he was overwhelmed at the flagrant enormity

of this sin, and the bold impiety of continuing in it after having, as

a people, so recently experienced the heavy marks of the divine

displeasure. God had begun to show returning favor to Israel by the

restoration of some. But this only aggravated their sin, that, so soon

after their re-establishment in their native land, they openly violated

the express and repeated precepts which commanded them to extirpate the

Canaanites. Such conduct, he exclaimed, could issue only in drawing

down some great punishment from offended Heaven and ensuring the

destruction of the small remnant of us that is left, unless, by the

help of divine grace, we repent and bring forth the fruits of

repentance in an immediate and thorough reformation.