Ezra 9 commentary

EZRA 9 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1
After these things had been done, the leaders
came to me and said, "The people of Israel,
including the priests and the Levites, have not
kept themselves separate from the neighboring
peoples with their detestable practices, like those
of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites,
Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites.
BAR ES, "Abominations - The mixed marriages had prevented that complete
separation of the people of God from the idolatrous rites, or “abominations,” which the
Law required, and which was necessary for purity of religion. See 1Ki_11:2 note.
CLARKE, "The people of Israel - These were they who had returned at first with
Zerubbabel, and were settled in the land of Judea and whom Ezra found on his arrival to
be little better than the Canaanitish nations from whom God had commanded them ever
to keep separate.
GILL, "Now when these things were done,.... When the captives with Ezra had
refreshed themselves, and weighed the money and vessels they brought, and put them
into the hands of proper persons, and offered sacrifices, and delivered the king's
commissions to his lieutenants and governors, and shown his own:
the princes came to me; some of the nobles of Israel, the most religious of them, who
were concerned at the corruptions that were among them, though not a sufficient
number to reform them:
saying the people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not
separated themselves from the people of the land: but joined with them, though
not in idolatrous practices, yet by marrying with them, which might lead them into

them:
doing according to their abominations; not serving idols as they did, but imitating
them in their marriages: even
of the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the
Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites; affinity with many of these was
forbidden by an express law, Deu_7:1 all but the Moabites, Ammonites, and Egyptians,
and from these for the same reason they were to abstain; namely, lest they should be
drawn into idolatry; that the priests and Levites should do this, who ought to have
known the law, and instructed the people better, was very sad and shocking.
HE RY, "Ezra, like Barnabas when he came to Jerusalem and saw the grace of God
to his brethren there, no doubt was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of
heart they would cleave to the Lord, Act_11:23. He saw nothing amiss (many
corruptions lurk out of the view of the most vigilant rulers); but here is a damp upon his
joys: information is brought him that many of the people, yea, and some of the rulers,
had married wives out of heathen families, and joined themselves in affinity with
strangers. Observe,
JAMISO , "Ezr_9:1-4. Ezra mourns for the affinity of the people with strangers.
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 by the king. On a superficial view everything contributed to
gratify 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 practiced 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 (Deu_7:2, Deu_7:3),
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.
K&D, "Information given of the intermingling of Israel with the heathen nations of
the land by marriage (Ezr_9:1-4), and Ezra's prayer and confession (Ezr_9:5-15). - Ezr_
9:1, Ezr_9:2. “When this was done, the princes came to me, and said, The people of

Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, do not separate themselves from the people of
the lands, according to their abominations, (even) of the Canaanites; ... for they have
taken (wives) of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and the holy seed
have mingled themselves with the people of the lands.” What now follows is placed in
close chronological sequence with what precedes by the formula ‫ה‬ ֶ ֵ‫א‬ ‫ּות‬ ַ‫כ‬ ְ‫,וּכ‬ at the time of
the completion of these things; comp. 2Ch_31:1; 2Ch_29:29; 2Ch_7:1. ‫ה‬ ֶ ֵ‫א‬ are the things
related Ezr_8:33-36. Of these the delivery of the gifts took place on the fourth day after
Ezra's arrival at Jerusalem, i.e., on the fourth or fifth day of the first month (comp. Ezr_
8:32, etc., with Ezr_7:9). The sacrifices (Ezr_8:35) would undoubtedly be offered
immediately; and the royal orders would be transmitted to the satraps and governors
(Ezr_8:36) very soon after. As soon, then, as Ezra received intelligence concerning the
illegal marriages, he took the matter in hand, so that all related (Ezr_9:3-10) occurred
on one day. The first assemblage of the people with relation to this business was not,
however, held till the twentieth day of the ninth month (Ezr_10:9); while on the calling
of this meeting, appearance thereat was prescribed within three days, thus leaving
apparently an interval of nine whole months between Ezra 8 and Ezr_9:1-15. Hence
Bertheau conjectures that the first proclamation of this assembly encountered
opposition, because certain influential personages were averse to the further prosecution
of this matter (Ezr_10:15). But though Ezr_10:4-7 does not inform us what period
elapsed between the adoption of Shecaniah's proposal to Ezra, and the proclamation for
assembling the people at Jerusalem, the narrative does not give the impression that this
proclamation was delayed for months through the opposition it met with. Besides, Ezra
may have received the information concerning the unlawful marriages, not during the
month of his arrival at Jerusalem, but some months later. We are not told whether it was
given immediately, or soon after the completion of the matters mentioned Ezr_8:33-36.
The delivery of the royal commands to the satraps and governors (Ezr_8:36) may have
occupied weeks or months, the question being not merely to transmit the king's decrees
to the said officials, but to come to such an understanding with them as might secure
their favour and goodwill in assisting the newly established community, and supporting
the house of God. The last sentence (Ezr_8:36), “And they furthered the people and the
house of God,” plainly shows that such an understanding with the royal functionaries
was effected, by transactions which must have preceded what is related Ezr_9:1-15.
This matter having been arranged, and Ezra being now about to enter upon the
execution of his commission to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem according to
the law of his God (Ezr_7:12), he received information of the illegal marriages. While he
was in the temple, the princes (‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ ָ ַ‫,ה‬ the princes, are those who give the information,
the article being used e.g., like that in ‫יט‬ ִ‫ל‬ ָ ַ‫,ה‬ Gen_14:13) came to him, saying: The people
(viz., Israel, the priests, and the Levites; the three classes of the Israelite community) do
not separate themselves from the people of the lands; comp. Ezr_6:21. ‫ם‬ ֶ‫יה‬ ֵ‫ּת‬‫ב‬ ֲ‫ּע‬‫ת‬ ְⅴ, with
respect to their abominations, i.e., as Israel should have done with respect to the
abominations of these people. The ְ‫ל‬ to ‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ ֲ‫ע‬ַ‫נ‬ ְⅴ ַ‫ל‬ might be regarded as introducing the
enumeration of the different nations, and corresponding with ‫י‬ ֵ ַ‫ע‬ ֵ‫;מ‬ it is, however, more
likely that it is used merely as a periphrasis for the genitive, and subordinates the names
to ‫ם‬ ֶ‫יה‬ ֵ‫ּת‬‫ב‬ ֲ‫ּע‬ : their, i.e., the Canaanites', etc., abominations, the suffix relating, as e.g., at
Ezr_3:12 and elsewhere, to the names following. Give Canaanitish races are here named,
as in Exo_13:5, with this difference, that the Perizzites are here substituted for the
Hivites, while in Exo_3:8; Exo_23:23, both are enumerated, making six; to these are

added in Deu_7:1 the Girgashites, making, generally speaking, seven nations.
Ammonites, Moabites, and Egyptians are here cited besides the Canaanitish races. The
non-severance of the Israelites from these nations consisted, according to Ezr_9:2, in
the fact of their having contracted marriages with them. In the law, indeed (Exo_34:16;
Deu_7:3), only marriages with Canaanitish women were forbidden; but the reason of
this prohibition, viz., that Israel might not be seduced by them to idolatry, made its
extension to Moabites, Ammonites, and Egyptians necessary under existing
circumstances, if an effectual check was to be put to the relapse into heathenism of the
Israelitish community, now but just gathered out again from among the Gentiles. For
during the captivity idolaters of all nations had settled in the depopulated country, and
mingled with the remnant of the Israelites left there. By “the people of the lands,”
however, we are not to understand, with J. H. Michaelis, remnants of the races
subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar and carried to Babylon, - who were now, after seventy
years, returning, as well as the Jews, to their native lands under Cyrus; in support of
which view Mich. incorrectly refers to Jer_25:9, etc. - but those portions, both of the
ancient Canaanitish races and of the Moabites and Ammonites, who, escaping the
sentence of captivity, remained in the land. ‫אוּ‬ ְ‫ֽשׂ‬ָ‫נ‬ is naturally completed by ‫ים‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ָ‫נ‬ from the
context; comp. Ezr_10:44; 2Ch_11:21, and other passages. The subject of ‫בוּ‬ ְ‫ֽר‬ ָ‫ע‬ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫ה‬ is the
collective ‫שׁ‬ ֶ‫ּד‬ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ע‬ ַ‫ר‬ֶ‫,ז‬ the holy seed, i.e., the members of the nation called to holiness (Exo_
19:5). The appellation is taken from Isa_6:13, where the remnant of the covenant people,
preserved in the midst of judgments, and purified thereby, is called a holy seed. The
second part of Ezr_9:2 contains an explanatory accessory clause: and the hand of the
princes and rulers hath been first in this unfaithfulness (‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ ַ‫,מ‬ comp. Lev_5:15), i.e., the
princes were the first to transgress; on the figurative expression, comp. Deu_13:10. ‫ים‬ִ‫נ‬ָ‫ג‬ ְ‫ס‬
is an Old-Persian word naturalized in Hebrew, signifying commander, prefect; but its
etymology is not as yet satisfactorily ascertained: see Delitzsch on Isa_41:25.
COFFMA , "Verse 1
EZRA'S PRAYERFUL RESPO SE TO THE MIXED MARRIAGES OF ISRAEL
WITH PAGA S
Actually, both of these final chapters of Ezra are devoted to the solution of the
problem presented by Israel's intermarriage with foreigners. It is easy for us to see
how this problem developed. In the first place there might have been a shortage of
women in that company of returnees which came with Zerubbabel; and again, the
great men of Israel's history had repeatedly taken foreign wives. Both Abraham and
Joseph had married Egyptians; Judah also married a Gentile; Moses married a
Cushite; one of David's wives was a foreigner (2 Samuel 3:3); and Solomon's harem
was apparently dominated by pagan wives. Under the circumstances, therefore, it is
easy to see how this problem developed.
evertheless, in spite of what some view as the violation of human rights, and the
incredible grief, sufferings, and emotional distress that resulted from Ezra's drastic
solution of this crisis, it needed to be corrected; and there can be no doubt whatever
that God's will was accomplished in the epic severance of Israel from their

idolatrous wives. "There is no doubt that if the practice of intermarriage had
continued and extended, then the Jews would have lost their national identity; and it
is of the greatest significance that the ew Testament warns against marriages with
unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14)."[1]
In this connection, we must reject the liberal view that, "The Israelites did not
originally condemn intermarriage."[2]; Deuteronomy 7:3 specifically forbade
intermarriage with non-Israelites; and it is a gross mistake to identify that
restriction with some alleged "Deuteronomist." The prohibition against Israel's
mingling with non-Israelites in marriage was an integral part of the entire Mosaic
covenant, as taught in Exodus 23:32, where God forbade making "any covenant"
with the pagan populations, a restriction which absolutely included the marriage
covenant as well as all other covenants. Again, "Is it not that we are separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth" (Exodus 33:16)?
The wholesale violation of God's law in this matter by many of Israel's famous
leaders in no way invalidated God's specific orders.
Before proceeding to examine the text of this chapter, we notice another liberal
viewpoint which we must reject. It seems to be a presumptive privilege falsely
arrogated to themselves which prompts many critical scholars to proceed with
rearranging the Biblical text to conform to their imaginative theories and
prejudices, apparently overlooking the fact that they are absolutely without any
divine mandate to do any such rearranging of the Biblical text.
We thank God that the custodianship of the Sacred Scriptures was not entrusted to
the radical critical enemies of the Bible whose writings have proliferated during the
current century. The inspired writings of the apostle Paul tell us exactly who
received that commission of custodianship. Here it is:
"WHAT ADVA TAGE THE HATH THE JEW? ... MUCH EVERY WAY;
FIRST OF ALL BECAUSE THEY WERE E TRUSTED WITH THE ORACLES
OF GOD" (Romans 3:1,2).
Well, there we have it! The Jews were entrusted with keeping the Sacred Scriptures
of the O.T.; and because of that, we cannot receive the proposition that, "The story
of the reading of the law and its aftermath ( ehemiah 7:73b-9:37) originally stood
between the Ezra 8 and Ezra 9."[3] There are excellent explanations of the gap of
several months between Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem and his getting down to the
problem of the mixed marriages; and we shall note these below.
This is a remarkably interesting and important chapter. There are ten divisions in
these final two chapters, three of which appear in this chapter. These are: (1) "The
complaint of the princes regarding the mixed marriages (Ezra 9:1-2); (2) Ezra's
astonishment and horror (Ezra 9:3-4); and (3) Ezra's confession and prayer to God
(Ezra 9:5-15)."[4]
EZRA GETS THE BAD EWS ABOUT THE MIXED MARRIAGES

" ow when these things were done, the princes drew near unto me, saying, The
people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from
the peoples of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites,
the Egyptians and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for
themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the
peoples of the lands: yea the hands of the princes and the rulers have been chief in
this trespass."
" ow when these things were done" (Ezra 9:1). Hamrick wrote that, "These words
seem to imply that the controversy over mixed marriages occurred immediately
upon Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem."[5] A number of current scholars take the same
view; and then, because Ezra's action to correct the situation did not take place until
the twentieth day of the ninth month (Ezra 10:9), the critical scholars at once
account for this "gap," as they call it, by supposing that, "The story of the reading
of the law and its aftermath ( ehemiah 7:73b-9:37) should be inserted into the Book
of Ezra, between Ezra 8 and Ezra 9."[6]
As noted above, we believe in the integrity and authenticity of both Ezra and
ehemiah; and we do not accept the assumed authority of 20th century scholars to
revise the Holy Bible and to do any kind of a scissors and paste job on it that pleases
them.
Their error here is in the failure to see that "after these things" in the text says
nothing about Ezra's actions being "immediately after his arrival in Jerusalem." It
simply means that Ezra received the word about the mixed marriages after he had
completed his assignment from the king. And how long was that?
Keil explained that several months elapsed before the word about the mixed
marriages came to Ezra. "The delivery of the king's commands to the satraps and
governors ... occupied weeks, or months; because the king's command was not
merely to transmit the royal decree, but to come to such an understanding with
them as would secure their goodwill and support in furthering the people and the
house of God."[7] In view of the vast distances involved in Ezra's delivery of the
king's decree to all the satraps and governors beyond the River, it is surprising that
he confronted the mixed marriage situation as early as he did.
"The Canaanites, the Hittites, Perizzites, ..." (Ezra 9:1). There were seven of the
Canaanite nations (Exodus 3:8; 23:23; Deuteronomy 7), five of whom are mentioned
here. The Ammonites, Moabites and Egyptians are here mentioned in addition to
five of the seven Canaanite races. "If any effectual check was to be put upon Israel's
relapse into heathenism, the prohibition against marriages with all of these groups,
under existing circumstances, was absolutely necessary."[8]
The problem was aggravated and intensified by the violations of many of the princes
and rulers of the Israelites by such marriages.

COKE, "Ver. 1. The people of Israel and the priests, &c.— See Deuteronomy 7:3.
The manner in which Ezra is said to have expressed his concern for the people's
unlawful marriages is, by rending his garment and his mantle, ver. 3 i.e. both his
inner and upper garment, which was a token not only of great grief and sorrow, but
of his apprehension likewise of the divine displeasure; and by pulling off the hair of
his head and beard, which was still a higher sign of exceeding great grief among
other nations as well as the Jews; and therefore we find in Homer, that when
Ulysses and his companions bewailed the death of Elpenor, "they sat in great grief,
and plucked off their hair." See the conclusion of the xth Book of the Odyssey.
Instead of doing according to their abominations, &c. Houbigant reads, their
wickedness is such as it was with the Canaanites, &c.
BE SO , ". The princes came to me — Those who feared God, and understood
that Ezra was come with a large commission and ample powers from the king, and
with a design to reform all disorders, whereof this which they came to complain of
was not the least: saying, The people, and the priests, &c., have not separated
themselves from the people of the lands — From the heathen nations round about
them, which God had expressly commanded them to do, (Deuteronomy 7:2-3,) but
have associated with them both in trade and in conversation; have made themselves
familiar with them; and, to complete the affinity, have taken the daughters of these
heathen in marriages to their sons. Doing according to their abominations —
Marrying promiscuously whomsoever they liked, as the heathen are wont to do, and
imitating them in some of their wicked practices, into which they have been drawn
by their heathenish affinities. To do abominations, is an expression, which, in
Scripture language, generally means worshipping of idols; but here it seems only to
signify imitating the heathen in promiscuous marriages with any nation whatsoever,
a practice which, however, would soon have led them to commit idolatry.
ELLICOTT, "Verses 1-4
IX.
(1) ow when these things were done.—The remainder of the book is occupied with
the execution of Ezra’s function as a moral reformer. One chief disorder is
mentioned, that of the mixed marriages (Ezra 9:2), which the new lawgiver
evidently regarded as fatal to the purity of the Divine service, and to the design of
God in separating for a season this peculiar people.
(1-4) The report of the abuse of mixed marriages is formally brought before Ezra.
(1) The princes—Heads of tribes, native rulers of Jerusalem, as distinguished from
the satraps and governors. Zerubbabel’s office had no successor; and the term
princes expressed rather their eminence than their authority, which had been
powerless to check the abuses they complain of.
Doing according to their abominations.—Rather, as it regards their abominations.
They are not charged with abandonment to idolatry, but with that peculiar laxity

which appears in the sequel.
The Ammonites.—It is remarkable that all the ancient proscribed races are
mentioned, and not the specific nations by the names of which the Samaritans were
known, as if to make the case as hateful as possible. At the same time, many of these
races still lingered in the neighbourhood of Judæa.
(2) The holy seed.—The “holy nation” or “peculiar people” of Exodus 19:6 is called
the “holy seed” by Isaiah (Ezra 6:13), with reference to its being preserved and kept
holy amidst judgments; and here the same term is used with reference to its
desecration by being made common among the nations.
The princes and rulers.—The upper classes, whether priests and Levites or laymen.
This trespass.—There is no question as to the unlawfulness of these intermarriages,
nor any palliation on account of necessity. The rulers report it, and Ezra receives
the report as evidence that the whole purpose of God with regard to the people was,
at the very outset of their new economy, in course of being defeated by the guilt of
the heads of Israel. Their delinquency as such is admitted on all hands.
(3) I rent my garment and my mantle.—The actions of Ezra betoken his horror and
grief. But both the rending of the outer and inner garment and the plucking the hair
were symbolical acts, teaching their lesson to the people who witnessed, and, as we
see, were deeply impressed.
(4) Trembled.—In fear of the Divine judgments.
Transgression of those that had been carried away.—The usual name of the people
at this time. During their captivity, however, they had not been thus guilty. It was
the aggravation of their guilt that they committed the trespass now.
TRAPP, "Ezra 9:1 ow when these things were done, 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,
the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
Ver. 1. ow when these things were done] Here are post maxima gaudia luctus,
Heaven’s joys are without measure or mixture; but this present life is overspread
with sins and miseries, as with a filthy morphew. Of good Ezra, we may say as Pliny
doth of Metellus, Metellus infelix dici non debet, felix non potest, Unhappy we may
not call him, happy we cannot; witness the doleful discourse of this chapter.
The princes came to me] The better sort of them, that were sensible of the abuses,
crept in, and desired a reformation. For some of the princes also and rulers had
their hands elbow deep in the wickedness complained of, Ezra 9:2.

The people of Israel] The many, the common sort, that shallow-brained but many
headed beast, that loves to follow the herd and do as the most do, though thereby
they be utterly undone for ever.
And the priests, and the Levites] This was much; for these knew the law, and made
their boast of it, Romans 2:18; Romans 2:23. They could not be ignorant of the
unlawfulness of this mixing themselves in marriage with heathens not proselyted.
ow sins against knowledge and conscience are of a double dye, of a crimson colour;
and make a great breach, a deep gash in a man’s spirit, Isaiah 59:11-12. What was it
that brought such roarings and troubles on them, and that when salvation was
looked for? Our iniquities testify to our faces, and we know them.
Have not separated themselves] The separation of the saints from the wicked is a
wonderful separation, Exodus 33:16, such as was that of light from darkness in the
creation. God hath brought them out of darkness into his marvellous light, 1 Peter
2:9. Why then should they be unequally yoked together with unbelievers? what
communion hath light with darkness? &c., 2 Corinthians 6:14.
Doing according to their abominations] How should they choose but do so when so
matched and married? What is the reason the pope will not dispense in Spain or
Italy, if a Papist marry a Protestant? yet here they will, but in hope thereby to draw
more to them. The brown bread in the oven will be sure to fleece from the white; not
that from it. So in married couples: seldom is the worse bettered by the good, but
the contrary. See ehemiah 13:26.
WHEDO , "Verse 1
ISRAEL’S SI OF HEATHE I TERMARRIAGE MADE K OW TO EZRA,
Ezra 9:1-2.
1. When these things were done — amely, the treasures delivered, the burnt
offerings offered, and the king’s commissions handed to the satraps and governors,
as stated Ezra 8:33-36.
The princes — Certain distinguished and godly men among the chiefs of the new
community at Jerusalem. ot all the princes came, for some were implicated in the
trespass here confessed. Ezra 9:2.
People… priests… Levites — All classes were involved, even the ministers of the
temple, who, above all, should have kept themselves pure. or were the rulers and
princes clear, as the next verse shows.
ot separated themselves from the people of the lands — The people of the lands

are the idolatrous nations in and about Palestine, named in this verse. With these
nations, which were not extinct, but abode still in large numbers in various parts of
the country, the returned exiles had largely mixed themselves. At the passover, held
immediately after the feast of dedication, (Ezra 6:19-22,) a number joined the new
community from “such as had separated themselves from the filthiness of the
heathen of the land,” (Ezra 6:21,) — apparently Israelites who had not gone into
exile, but, being left in the land, had intermarried with their heathen neighbours,
and being without temple, priests, or worship, had gradually lost the knowledge and
worship of Jehovah. These seem to have corrupted many of the Jews who had
returned from exile, and during the half century or more from that time until Ezra’s
arrival, this evil leaven had been spreading through the whole community. ot all
the people were guilty, but the evil had affected all classes, and the commandments
of the law forbidding intermarriage with these heathen nations (Exodus 34:12-16;
Deuteronomy 7:1-3) seem to have been forgotten, or else utterly ignored by even the
leaders of the people.
Their abominations — Their idolatrous practices. On the strictly Canaanitish
nations here mentioned, see note on Joshua 3:10. The Ammonites and Moabites,
whose country was east of the Jordan, had at different times long before this
corrupted Israel with their abominations. umbers 25:1; Judges 10:6. The wars
between Persia and Egypt had, doubtless, brought many Egyptians into contact with
the Jews, and from the time of Solomon’s marriage with Pharaoh’s daughter (1
Kings 3:1) the Egyptians had mingled more or less with the Israelites.
EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMME TARY, "FOREIG MARRIAGES
Ezra 9:1-15
The successful issue of Ezra’s undertaking was speedily followed by a bitter
disappointment on the part of its leader, the experience of which urged him to make
a drastic reformation that rent many a happy home asunder and filled Jerusalem
with the grief of broken hearts.
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 had rudely rejected the proposal of
their Gentile neighbours to assist them in rebuilding the temple was abandoned, and
freedom of intercourse went so far as to permit intermarriage with the descendants
of the Canaanite aborigines and the heathen population of neighbouring nations.
Ezra gives a list of tribal names closely resembling the lists preserved in the history
of early ages, when the Hebrews first contemplated taking possession of the
promised land, [Ezra 9:1] but it cannot be imagined that the ancient tribes
preserved their independent names and separate existence as late as the time of the
return-though the presence of the gypsies as a distinct people in England today
shows that racial distinction may be kept up for ages in a mixed society. It is more
probable that the list is literary, that the names are reminiscences of the tribes as

they were known in ancient traditions. In addition to these old inhabitants of
Canaan, there are Ammonites and Moabites from across the Jordan. Egyptians,
and, lastly, most significantly separate from the Canaanite tribes, those strange folk,
the Amorites, who are discovered by recent ethnological research to be of a totally
different stock from that of the Canaanite tribes, probably allied to a light-coloured
people that can be traced along the Libyan border, and possibly even of Aryan
origin. From all these races the Jew’s had taken them wives. So wide was the gate
flung open!
This freedom of intermarriage may be viewed as a sign of general laxity and
indifference on the part of the citizens of Jerusalem, and so Ezra seems to have
regarded it. But it would be a mistake to suppose that there was no serious purpose
associated with it, by means of which grave and patriotic men attempted to justify
the practice. It was a question whether the policy of exclusiveness had succeeded.
The temple had been built, it is true, and a city had risen among the ruins of ancient
Jerusalem. But poverty, oppression, hardship, and disappointment had settled down
on the little Judaean community, which now found itself far worse off than the
captives in Babylon. 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 Chaldaea were
enriching themselves by trade with the heathen, were galled by a yoke which held
them back from foreign intercourse. It would seem to be advisable, on social as well
as on political grounds, that a new and more liberal course should be pursued, if the
wretched garrison was not to be starved out. 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 forego the austerity of their fathers. There does not seem to have been any
one recognised head of the community after Zerubbabel; the "princes" constituted a
sort of informal oligarchy. Some of these princes had taken foreign wives. Priests
and Levites had also followed the same course. It is a historical fact that the party of
rigour is not generally the official party. In the days of our Lord the priests and
rulers were mostly Sadducean, while the Pharisees were men of the people. The
English Puritans were not of the Court party. But in the case before us the leaders
of the people were divided. While we do not meet any priests among the purists,
some of the princes disapproved of the laxity of their neighbours, and exposed it to
Ezra.
Ezra was amazed, appalled. In the dramatic style which is quite natural to an
Oriental, he rent both his tunic and his outer mantle, and he tore his hair and his
long priestly beard. This expressed more than the grief of mourning which is shown
by tearing one garment and cutting the hair. Like the high-priest when he
ostentatiously rent his clothes at what he wished to be regarded as blasphemy in the
words of Jesus, Ezra showed indignation and rage by his violent action. It was a sign
of his startled and horrified emotions, but no doubt it was also intended to produce
an impression on the people who gathered in awe to watch the great ambassador, as
he sat amazed and silent on the temple pavement through the long hours of the

autumn afternoon.
The grounds of Ezra’s grief and anger may be learnt from the remarkable prayer
which he poured out when the stir occasioned by the preparation of the vesper
ceremonies roused him, and when the ascending smoke of the evening sacrifice
would naturally suggest to him an occasion for drawing near to God. Welling up,
hot and passionate, his prayer is a revelation of the very heart of the scribe. Ezra
shows us what true prayer is-that it is laying bare the heart and soul in the presence
of God. The striking characteristic of this outburst of Ezra’s is that it does not
contain a single petition. There is no greater mistake in regard to prayer than the
notion that it is nothing more than the begging of specific favours from the bounty
of the Almighty. That is but a shallow kind of prayer at best. In the deepest and
most real prayer the soul is too near to God to ask for any definite thing; it is just
unbosoming itself to the Great Confidant, just telling out its agony to the Father
who can understand everything and receive the whole burden of the anguished
spirit.
Considering this prayer more in detail, we may notice, in the first place, that Ezra
comes out as a true priest, not indeed officiating at the altar with ceremonial
sacrifices, but identifying himself with the people he represents, so that he takes to
his own breast the shame of what he regards as the sin of his people. Prostrate with
self-humiliation, he cries, "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to
Thee, my God," and [Ezra 9:6] he speaks of the sins which have just been made
known to him as though he had a share in them, calling them "our iniquities" and
"our trespass." [Ezra 9:6] Have we not here a glimpse into that mystery of vicarious
sin-bearing which is consummated in the great intercession and sacrifice of our
Lord? Though himself a sinful man, and therefore at heart sharing the guilt of his
people by personal participation in it, as the holy Jesus could not do, still in regard
to the particular offence which he is now deploring. Ezra is as innocent as an
unfallen angel. Yet he blushes for shame, and lies prostrate with confusion of face.
He is such a true patriot that he completely identifies himself with his people. But in
proportion as such an identification is felt, there must be an involuntary sense of the
sharing of guilt. It is vain to call it an illusion of the imagination. Before the bar of
strict justice Ezra was as innocent of this one sin, as before the same bar Christ was
innocent of all sin. God could not really disapprove of him for it, any more than He
could look with disfavour on the great Sin-bearer. But subjectively, in his own
experience, Ezra did not feel less poignant pangs of remorse than he would have felt
if he had been himself personally guilty. This perfect sympathy of true priesthood is
rarely experienced, but since Christians are called to be priests, to make
intercession, and to bear one another’s burdens, something approaching it must be
shared by all the followers of Christ; they who would go forth as saviours of their
brethren must feel it acutely. The sin-bearing sacrifice of Christ stands alone in its
perfect efficacy, and many mysteries crowd about it that cannot be explained by any
human analogies. Still, here and there we come across faint likenesses in the higher
experiences of the better men, enough to suggest that our Lord’s passion was not a
prodigy, that it was really in harmony with the laws by which God governs the
moral universe.

In thus confessing the sin of the people before God, but in language which the
people who shared with him a reverence for The Law could hear, no doubt Ezra
hoped to move them also to share in his feelings of shame and abhorrence for the
practices he was deploring. He came dangerously near to the fatal mistake of
preaching through a prayer, by "praying at" the congregation. He was evidently too
deeply moved to be guilty of an insincerity, a piece of profanity, at which every
devout soul must revolt. evertheless the very exercise of public prayer-prayer
uttered audibly, and conducted by the leader of a congregation-means that this is to
be an inducement for the people to join in the worship. 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. In this way it may be possible
for him to influence men and women by praying with them, as he can never do by
directly preaching to them. The essential point is that the prayer must first of all be
real on the part of the leader-that he must be truly addressing God, and then that
his intention with regard to the people must be not to exhort them through his
prayer, but simply to induce them to join him in it.
Let us now inquire what was the nature of the sin which so grievously distressed
Ezra, and which he regarded as so heavy a slur on the character of his people in the
sight of God. On the surface of it, there was just a question of policy. Some have
argued that the party of rigour was mistaken, that its course was suicidal, that the
only way of preserving the little colony was by means of well-adjusted alliances with
its neighbours-a low view of the question which Ezra would not have glanced at for
a moment, because with his supreme faith in God no consideration of worldly
expediency or political diplomacy could be allowed to deflect him from the path
indicated, as he thought, by the Divine will. But a higher line of opposition has been
taken. It has been said that Ezra was illiberal, uncharitable, culpably narrow, and
heartlessly harsh. That the man who could pour forth such a prayer as this, every
sentence of which throbs with emotion, every word of which tingles with intense
feeling-that this man was heartless cannot be believed. Still it may be urged that
Ezra took a very different view from that suggested by the genial outlook across the
nations which we meet in Isaiah. The lovely idyll of Ruth defends the course he
condemned so unsparingly. The Book of Jonah was written directly in rebuke of one
form of Jewish exclusiveness. Ezra was going even further than the Book of
Deuteronomy, which had allowed marriages with the heathen, [Deuteronomy 21:13]
and [Deuteronomy 23:1-8] It cannot be maintained that all the races named by Ezra
were excluded. Could it be just to condemn the Jews for not having followed the
later and more exacting edition of The Law, which Ezra had only just brought up
with him, and which had not been known by the offenders?
In trying to answer these questions, we must start from one clear fact. Ezra is not
merely guided by a certain view of policy. He may be mistaken, but he is deeply
conscientious, his motive is intensely religious. Whether rightly or wrongly, he is
quite persuaded that the social condition at which he is so grievously shocked is
directly opposed to the known will of God. "We have forsaken Thy

commandments," he exclaims. But what commandments, we may ask, seeing that
the people of Jerusalem did not possess a law that went so far as Ezra was requiring
of them? His own language here comes in most appositely. Ezra does not appeal to
Deuteronomy, though he may have had a passage from that book in mind,
[Deuteronomy 7:3] neither does he produce the Law Book which he has brought up
with him from Babylon and to which reference is made in our version of the decree
of Artaxerxes: [Ezra 7:14] but he turns to the prophets, not with reference to any of
their specific utterances, but in the most general way, implying that his view is
derived from the broad stream of prophecy in its whole course and character. In his
prayer he describes the broken commandments as "those which Thou hast
commanded by Thy servants the prophets." This is the more remarkable because
the prophets did not favour the scrupulous observance of external rules, but dwelt
on great principles of righteousness. Some of them took the liberal side, and
expressed decidedly cosmopolitan ideas in regard to foreign nations, as Ezra must
have been aware. He may have mentally anticipated the excuses which would be
urged in reliance on isolated utterances of this character. Still, on a survey of the
whole course of prophecy, he is persuaded that it is opposed to the practices which
he condemns. He throws his conclusion into a definite sentence, after the manner of
a verbal quotation, [Ezra 9:11] but this is only in accordance with the vivid,
dramatic style of Semitic literature, and what he really means is that the spirit of his
national prophecy and the principles laid down by the recognised prophets support
him in the position which he has taken up. These prophets fought against all corrupt
practices, and in particular they waged ceaseless war with the introduction of
heathenish manners to the religious and social life of Israel. It is here that Ezra finds
them to be powerful allies in his stern reformation. They furnish him, so to speak,
with his major premiss, and that is indisputable. His weak place is in his minor
premiss, viz., in the notion that intermarriage with Gentile neighbours necessarily
involves the introduction of corrupt heathenish habits. This he quietly assumes. But
there is much to be said for his position, especially when we note that he is not now
concerned with the Samaritans, with whom the temple-builders came into contact
and who accepted some measure of the Jewish faith, but in some cases with known
idolaters-the Egyptians, for instance. The complex social and moral problems which
surround the quarrel on which Ezra here embarks will come before us more fully as
we proceed. At present it may suffice for us to see that Ezra rests his action on his
conception of the main characteristics of the teaching of the prophets.
Further, his reading of history comes to his aid. He perceives that it was the
adoption of heathenish practices that necessitated the severe chastisement of the
captivity. God had only spared a small remnant of the guilty people. But He had
been very gracious to that remnant, giving them "a nail in His holy place"; [Ezra
9:8] i.e., a fixture in the restored sanctuary, though as yet, as it were, but at one
small point, because so few had returned to enjoy the privileges of the sacred temple
worship. ow even this nail might be drawn. Will the escaped remnant be so foolish
as to imitate the sins of their forefathers, and risk the slight hold which they have as
yet obtained in the renewed centre of Divine favour? So to repudiate the lessons of
the captivity, which should have been branded irrevocably by the hot irons of its
cruel hardships, what was this but a sign of the most desperate depravity? Ezra

could see no hope even of a remnant escaping from the wrath which would consume
the people who were guilty of such wilful, such open-eyed apostasy.
In the concluding sentences of his prayer Ezra appeals to the righteousness of God,
who had permitted the remnant to escape at the time of the Babylonian Captivity,
saying, "O Lord, the God of Israel, Thou art righteous, for we are left a remnant
that is escaped, as it is this day." [Ezra 9:15] Some have supposed that God’s
righteousness here stands for His goodness, and that Ezra really means the mercy
which spared the remnant. But this interpretation is contrary to usage, and quite
opposed to the spirit of the prayer. Ezra has referred to the mercy of God earlier,
but in his final sentences he has another thought in mind. The prayer ends in gloom
and despondency-"behold, we are before Thee in our guiltiness, for none can stand
before Thee because of this." [Ezra 9:15] The righteousness of God, then, is seen in
the fact that only a remnant was spared. Ezra does not plead for the pardon of the
guilty people, as Moses did in his famous prayer of intercession. [Exodus 32:31-32]
As yet they are not conscious of their sin. To forgive them before they have owned
their guilt would be immoral. The first condition of pardon is confession. "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness." [1 John 1:9] Then, indeed, the very righteousness of God
favours the pardon of the stoner. But till this state of contrition is reached, not only
can there be no thought of forgiveness, but the sternest, darkest thoughts of sin are
most right and fitting. 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. It is to this end that the very passion of his soul is directed. Here we
perceive the spirit of the true reformer. But the evangelist cannot afford to dispense
with something of the same spirit, although he can add the gracious encouragements
of a gospel, for the only true gospel promises deliverance from sin itself in the first
instance as from the greatest of all evils, and deliverance from no other evil except
on condition of freedom from this.
LA GE, "The Chief Fault of the Time and its Removal
A.—THE CHEIF FAULT OF THE TIME EZRA’S PE TITE TIAL PRAYER
Ezra 9:1-15
I. The Chief Fault of the Time, and Ezra’s Sorrow for It. Ezra 9:1-4
1 ow when these things were done, 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, the Moabites, the
Egyptians, and the Amorites 2 For they have taken of their daughters for
themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with
the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in
this trespass 3 And 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 4 Then
were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel,
because of the transgression of those that had been carried away and I sat astonied
until the evening sacrifice.
LA GE, "Ezra 9:1-4. To a positive strengthening of the life in accordance with the
law belonged without doubt a long preparatory activity on the part of Ezra. It could
not be accomplished by merely external arrangements or contrivances. Rather it
was necessary that Ezra should bring about an internal change, excite a holy zeal
for the law, as we see it break forth in fact at a later period ( ehemiah 8-10), and
thus above all deepen and render more general the knowledge of the law. But
already, at the outset, he had to undertake a negative improvement, the removal of a
bad state of affairs that threatened their future. It was again the question as
previously in the time of Zerubbabel, respecting their relation to the heathen, which
was involved in their present political relations, especially their union with heathen
under the same government. If, however, the problem in the time of Zerubbabel had
been merely to ward off those who would unite with the congregation on the plea of
a common worship of Jehovah, now the question was with reference to the exclusion
of those with whom union had been established, notwithstanding difference of
religion.
Ezra 9:1. And after the completion of these things,etc.—‫ַלּוֹת‬‫כּ‬ is infin. nomin.
=completion. ‫ֶה‬‫לּ‬ֵ‫א‬ is neuter, referring to the things mentioned in Ezra 8:33-36. This
statement of time is somewhat indefinite—yet we are not to suppose that the length
of time of the things here narrated was very long after chap8. The delivery of the
gifts brought with them occurred on the fourth day after Ezra’s arrival; thus, on the
fourth or fifth day of the fifth month (comp. Ezra 8:32 and Ezra 7:9); the bringing
of the offerings, moreover, Ezra 8:35, without doubt soon followed, and so also the
delivery of the royal decree to the officials ( Ezra 8:36); the support on the part of
the latter may be very well mentioned in Ezra 8:36 proleptically, or is to be
understood of their promise. If a longer time had elapsed between Ezra’s arrival in
Jerusalem and chap9, it would not have been necessary for the princes of the
congregation to have first made complaint respecting the evil circumstances in
question, but Ezra would have observed them himself. Accordingly by the ninth
month,—on the twentieth day of which, according to Ezra 10:9, the first assembly of
the people was held respecting the affair here coming into question,—is meant
without doubt the ninth of the first year that Ezra passed in Jerusalem.—The
princes came to me.—‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ָ‫ַשּׂ‬‫ה‬ (with the article) are not the princes as a whole—for
according to Ezra 9:2 many of them participated in the guilt, and these would not
have given information of themselves,—but the princes in distinction from the
people. The princes distinguish as such who have not separated themselves, that
Isaiah, kept themselves separate from the people of the land, three classes, that
occur elsewhere, also along side of one another: the people of Israel—that Isaiah,
the common people (‫ל‬ֵ‫א‬ ָ‫ר‬ְ‫ִשׂ‬‫י‬ is in apposition to ‫ָם‬‫ע‬ָ‫ה‬, comp. Joshua 8:33; 1 Kings
16:21);—the priests and Levites—comp. e.g. Ezra 2:70.—The people of the lands are
the ἔ‫טםח‬‫טםח‬‫טםח‬‫,טםח‬ and indeed, first of all, those in the vicinity, comp. Ezra, and indeed, first of all, those in the vicinity, comp. Ezra, and indeed, first of all, those in the vicinity, comp. Ezra, and indeed, first of all, those in the vicinity, comp. Ezra 6:216:216:216:21. For the most. For the most. For the most. For the most

part there were, without doubt, remnants of the ancient tribes of Canaan, whosepart there were, without doubt, remnants of the ancient tribes of Canaan, whosepart there were, without doubt, remnants of the ancient tribes of Canaan, whosepart there were, without doubt, remnants of the ancient tribes of Canaan, whose
abominations, according to the subsequent narrative, were peculiar to them; butabominations, according to the subsequent narrative, were peculiar to them; butabominations, according to the subsequent narrative, were peculiar to them; butabominations, according to the subsequent narrative, were peculiar to them; but
probably during the exile other heathen races also had emigrated into the depopulatedprobably during the exile other heathen races also had emigrated into the depopulatedprobably during the exile other heathen races also had emigrated into the depopulatedprobably during the exile other heathen races also had emigrated into the depopulated
Palestine. Ezra and the princes thus, when they required a separation from all thesePalestine. Ezra and the princes thus, when they required a separation from all thesePalestine. Ezra and the princes thus, when they required a separation from all thesePalestine. Ezra and the princes thus, when they required a separation from all these
heathen,heathen,heathen,heathen,————that Isaiah, excluded an intermarriage with them,that Isaiah, excluded an intermarriage with them,that Isaiah, excluded an intermarriage with them,that Isaiah, excluded an intermarriage with them,————exceeded the letter ofexceeded the letter ofexceeded the letter ofexceeded the letter of
the law, which only prohibited intermarriage with the Canaanites ( Exodusthe law, which only prohibited intermarriage with the Canaanites ( Exodusthe law, which only prohibited intermarriage with the Canaanites ( Exodusthe law, which only prohibited intermarriage with the Canaanites ( Exodus 34:1634:1634:1634:16;;;;
DeuteronomyDeuteronomyDeuteronomyDeuteronomy 7:37:37:37:3),),),),————but not because a certain Pharisaism had already made itself feltbut not because a certain Pharisaism had already made itself feltbut not because a certain Pharisaism had already made itself feltbut not because a certain Pharisaism had already made itself felt
among them (O. v. Gerlach in his Biblework), but because it was absolutely necessaryamong them (O. v. Gerlach in his Biblework), but because it was absolutely necessaryamong them (O. v. Gerlach in his Biblework), but because it was absolutely necessaryamong them (O. v. Gerlach in his Biblework), but because it was absolutely necessary
now if the congregation was to be preserved from sinking down into heathenism. Thenow if the congregation was to be preserved from sinking down into heathenism. Thenow if the congregation was to be preserved from sinking down into heathenism. Thenow if the congregation was to be preserved from sinking down into heathenism. The
heathen dwelling in close vicinity to them, and not being separated in political affairs,heathen dwelling in close vicinity to them, and not being separated in political affairs,heathen dwelling in close vicinity to them, and not being separated in political affairs,heathen dwelling in close vicinity to them, and not being separated in political affairs,
the mixed marriages now threatened, if not positively forbidden, to becomethe mixed marriages now threatened, if not positively forbidden, to becomethe mixed marriages now threatened, if not positively forbidden, to becomethe mixed marriages now threatened, if not positively forbidden, to become
disproportionately numerous, whilst in former times they could never have been moredisproportionately numerous, whilst in former times they could never have been moredisproportionately numerous, whilst in former times they could never have been moredisproportionately numerous, whilst in former times they could never have been more
than exceptional. And besides, these heathen were now essentially the same as thethan exceptional. And besides, these heathen were now essentially the same as thethan exceptional. And besides, these heathen were now essentially the same as thethan exceptional. And besides, these heathen were now essentially the same as the
ancient Canaanites.ancient Canaanites.ancient Canaanites.ancient Canaanites.————According to their abominations.According to their abominations.According to their abominations.According to their abominations.————This briefly = as theirThis briefly = as theirThis briefly = as theirThis briefly = as their
abominations required.abominations required.abominations required.abominations required. ‫ֲני‬‫ע‬ַ‫נ‬ְ‫כּ‬ַ‫ל‬ does not then begin the enumeration of the races in
question—which is against not only the accentuation which separates this clause so
strongly from the nations, but also the position of the word, for the clause
“according to their abominations” would not then have intervened, but should have
followed the enumeration; and besides also the ְ‫ל‬ before ‫ִי‬‫נ‬ֲ‫ע‬‫ְנ‬‫כּ‬—which would have
scarcely an analogy in its favor. Rather ‫ִי‬‫נ‬ֲ‫ע‬ַ‫נ‬ְ‫כּ‬ַ‫ל‬, “belonging to the Canaanites;”
briefly=as they were peculiar to the Canaanites, the Hittites, etc. The abominations
are designated by this clause as the ancient ones, condemned by the prophets, and
especially by Moses, long before; and all the various names of nations are mentioned
because the abominations had been so many and so different among the different
races. It was not the purpose to give a complete statement, else the Hivites (comp.
Exodus 3:8; Exodus 13:5; Exodus 23:23) and also the Girgashites (comp.
Deuteronomy 7:1) would also have been mentioned.
PULPIT, "I the interval between Zerubbabel's rule and the coming of Ezra from
Babylon with a special commission appointing him governor of Judaea, the Jews
seem to have been left without any strong controlling authority. The civil
administration devolved upon a certain number of chiefs or "princes," who
maintained order in Jerusalem, collected and remitted the tribute due to the Persian
crown, and held courts to decide all causes, criminal and civil, in which only Jews
were concerned. Tranquillity and order were sufficiently maintained in this way;
but the governing power was weak, and in matters outside the range of the civil and
criminal law men did pretty nearly "as it seemed good in their own eyes." During
this interval of governmental debility, it appears that a fusion had begun between
the Jews and the neighbouring nations. Although the law of Moses distinctly

forbade intermarriage between the people of God and the idolatrous nations whose
land they had inherited, and by implication forbade such unions with any
neighbouring idolaters, the newly-returned Israelites, perhaps not fully provided
with women of their own nation and religion, had taken to themselves wives freely
from the idolatrous tribes and nations in their vicinity. They had intermarried with
the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Amorites, the Egyptians, and even with the
remnant of the Canaanites. ot only had this been done by the common people, but
"the hand of the princes and rulers" had been "chief in this trespass" (Ezra 9:2).
or had even the sacerdotal order kept itself pure. Priests and Levites, nay, the
actual sons and nephews of the high priest Jeshua himself, were guilty in the matter
(Ezra 10:18), had taken to themselves wives of the accursed races, and "mingled
themselves with the people of the lands" (Ezra 9:2). The danger to purity of religion
was great. Those who married idolatrous wives were tempted, like Solomon, to
connive at their introducing unhallowed rites into the holy city; while the issue of
such marriages, influenced by their mothers, were apt to prefer heathenism to
Judaism, and to fall away from the faith altogether. A fusion of the Jews with the
Gentiles in Palestine at this time would have meant a complete obliteration of the
Jews, who would have been absorbed and swallowed up in the far larger mass of the
heathen without materially affecting it. Thus God's purpose in singling out a
"peculiar people" would have been frustrated, and the world left without a
regenerating element. Considerations of this kind help us to understand the horror
of Ezra when he understood what had taken place (Ezra 9:3-6; Ezra 10:1), and
enable us to estimate at its right value the zeal that he displayed in putting down the
existing practice and establishing a better order of things. His task was lightened to
him by the fact that a large religious and patriotic party rallied to him, and
associated itself with his reforms; a party including many of the princes and elders
(Ezra 9:1; Ezra 10:8), and no doubt a certain number of the priests. He effected his
reform by means of a commission of laymen (Ezra 10:16), which in the space of little
more than three months inquired into all the suspected cases, and compelled every
person who had married an idolatrous wife to divorce her, and send her back, with
any children that she had borne him, to her own people. Thus, .for the time, the
corruption was effectually checked, the evil rooted out and removed. We shall find,
however, in ehemiah, that it recurred in ehemiah 13:23), in combination with
various other abuses, and had to be once more resisted and repressed by the civil
power ( ehemiah 13:30). This section is divisible into ten parts:—
1. The complaint made by the princes to Ezra concerning the mixed marriages (Ezra
9:1, Ezra 9:2);
2. Ezra's astonishment and horror (Ezra 9:3, Ezra 9:4);
3. His confession and prayer to God (Ezra 9:5-15);
4. Repentance of the people, and covenant sworn to, on the recommendation of
Shechaniah (Ezra 10:1-5);
5. Ezra's fast (Ezra 10:6);

6. Proclamation summoning all the Jews to Jerusalem (Ezra 10:7-9);
7. Address of Ezra, and consent of the people to put away the strange wives (Ezra
10:10-14);
8. Opposition of Jonathan and others (Ezra 10:15);
9. Accomplishment of the work (Ezra 10:16, Ezra 10:17); and
10. ames of those who had married strange wives (Ezra 10:18-44).
Ezra 9:1-2
COMPLAI T OF THE PRI CES TO EZRA (Ezra 9:1, Ezra 9:2). It is remarkable
that complaint on a matter of religious transgression should have come from the
secular, and not from the ecclesiastical, authorities of the city. But there clearly
appears about this time some remissness and connivance at evil, if not even
participation in it, on the part of the chief ecclesiastics. On this particular occasion,
actual sons and nephews of Jeshua the high priest were among those who had
married idolatrous wives (Ezra 10:18), and afterwards, in ehemiah's time, not only
did the high priest's family indulge in similar alliances in ehemiah 13:4, ehemiah
13:28), but Eliashib actually assigned to one of the heathen, and one who was a
bitter opponent of ehemiah, a chamber in the temple itself (ibid. verses 5, 9). When
the heads of the sacerdotal order were themselves implicated in the abuses
prevalent, it was perhaps not unnatural, though highly reprehensible, that the
inferior clergy should be silent and stand aloof. By God's good providence, however,
it often happens that when things have come to this pass, and the priestly order is
hopelessly corrupt, godly princes are raised up to take in hand religious reforms
and carry them to a successful issue.
Ezra 9:1
When these things were done. It must have been some considerable time afterwards.
Ezra reached Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month (Ezra 7:9), rested three
days (Ezra 8:32), and on the fourth day of the same month made over the vessels to
the temple authorities. It was not till the seventeenth day of the ninth month that, on
Ezra's motion, the matter of the mixed marriages was taken in hand (Ezra 10:8,
Ezra 10:9). Yet we cannot suppose that action was long delayed after the matter
came to Ezra's knowledge. The princes. The civil heads of the community, whom
Ezra found at the head of affairs on his arrival, and whose authority he did not
wholly supersede (see Ezra 10:14, Ezra 10:16). The people of the lands. The
idolatrous nations inhabiting the districts adjoining Palestine: Egyptians and
Amorites on the south; Moabites and Ammonites on the east; Canaanites probably
towards the north and the north-west. Doing according to their abominations.
Rather, "in respect of their abominations." The complaint was not so much that the
Jews had as yet actually adopted idolatrous functions, as that they did not keep

themselves wholly aloof from them. The foreign wives would introduce idolatrous
rites into their very houses.
2
They have taken some of their daughters as wives
for themselves and their sons, and have mingled
the holy race with the peoples around them. And
the leaders and officials have led the way in this
unfaithfulness."
CLARKE, "Hath been chief in this trespass - They who are the first men have
been the most capital offenders; so Virgil, Aen. ix. 783: -
Unus homo, vestris, o cives, undique septus
Aggeribus, tantas strages impune per urbem Ediderit?
Juvenum primos tot miserit orco?
“Shall one, and he enclosed within your walls,
One rash imprisoned warrior, vanquish all?
Calm you look on, and see the furious foe
Plunge crowds of heroes to the shades below!”
Pitt.
The first of the Trojan youth were the chief, the most illustrious; so we say the first
men of the kingdom for the nobles, etc.
GILL, "For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their
sorts,.... Some that were widowers not only took wives to themselves of the above
nations, either when they were of Babylon, where many of these nations also were, or
rather since their return; but they took for their sons also; yea, some that had wives took
Heathenish ones to them, see Mal_2:13,
so that the holy seed; such as the Lord had separated from other nations, chosen
them to be an holy people above all others, and devoted them to his service and worship:

have mingled themselves with the people of those lands; before mentioned, by
marrying with them:
yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass; they
were the first that went into it, were ringleaders of it, who should by their authority and
example have restrained others; or they were
in this first trespass (i); which was the first gross and capital one the people fell into
after their return from the captivity.
HE RY, " What the sin was that they were guilty of: it was mingling with the people
of those lands (Ezr_9:2), associating with them both in trade and in conversation,
making themselves familiar with them, and, to complete the affinity, taking their
daughters in marriages to their sons. We are willing to hope that they did not worship
their gods, but that their captivity had cured them of their idolatry: it is said indeed that
they did according to their abominations; but that (says bishop Patrick) signifies here
only the imitation of the heathen in promiscuous marriages with any nation whatsoever,
which by degrees would lead them to idolatry. Herein, 1. They disobeyed the express
command of God, which forbade all intimacy with the heathen, and particularly in
matrimonial contracts, Deu_7:3. 2. They profaned the crown of their peculiarity, and set
themselves upon a level with those above whom God had by singular marks of his
favour, of late as well as formerly, dignified them. 3. They distrusted the power of God to
protect and advance them, and were led by carnal policy, hoping to strengthen
themselves and make an interest among their neighbours by these alliances. A practical
disbelief of God's all-sufficiency is at the bottom of all the sorry shifts we make to help
ourselves. 4. They exposed themselves, and much more their children, to the peril of
idolatry, the very sin, and introduced by this very way, that had cone been the ruin of
their church and nation.
II. Who were the persons that were guilty of this sin, not only some of the unthinking
people of Israel, that knew no better, but many of the priests and Levites, whose office it
was to teach the law, and this law among the rest, and in whom, by reason of their
elevation above common Israelites, it was a greater crime. It was a diminution to the
sons of that tribe to match into any other tribe, and they seldom did except into the royal
tribe; but for them to match with heathen, with Canaanites, and Hittites, and I know not
whom, was such a disparagement as, if they had had any sense, though not of duty, yet
of honour, one would think, they would never have been guilty of. Yet this was not the
worst: The hand of the princes and rulers, who by their power should have prevented or
reformed this high misdemeanour, was chief in this trespass. If princes be in a trespass,
they will be charged as chief in it, because of the influence their examples will have upon
others. Many will follow their pernicious ways. But miserable is the case of that people
whose leaders debauch them and cause them to err.
III. The information that was given of this to Ezra. It was given by the persons that were
most proper to complain, the princes, those of them that had kept their integrity and
with it their dignity; they could not have accused others if they themselves had not been
free from blame. It was given to the person who had power to mend the matter, who, as
a ready scribe in the law of God, could argue with them, and, as king's commissioner,
could awe them. It is probable that these princes had often endeavoured to redress this
grievance and could not; but now they applied to Ezra, hoping that his wisdom,
authority, and interest, would prevail to do it. Those that cannot of themselves reform

public abuses may yet do good service by giving information to those that can.
JAMISO , "
K&D, "
BE SO , "Ezra 9:2. So that the holy seed, &c. — They are called a holy seed,
because of the covenant which God had made with them, whereby they were
constituted a peculiar people, separated from all other nations. Have mingled
themselves with the people of those lands — Since their return, as may be gathered
from Ezra 9:8-14. Yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this
trespass — Who ought to have restrained the people from it by their authority and
example; and who, by acting otherwise, have made the sin more general, and have
involved themselves and the nation in the guilt of it. The case, certainly, was much
the more dangerous, because the great men of the nation were the principal
offenders; for through this the people would be freed from all fear of punishment,
and therefore would the more readily imitate their bad example. It is probable the
princes, who informed Ezra of this enormous practice, had endeavoured to reform
it, but could not, because they were opposed by men as great as themselves.
TRAPP, "Ezra 9:2 For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for
their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of [those]
lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.
Ver. 2. For they have taken of their daughters] Taken them for wives: which was
flatly forbidden, Deuteronomy 7:3, and a reason given, Ezra 9:4, from the evil effect
of such unblest marriages. This abuse Malachi complaineth of, Malachi 2:11;
Malachi 2:13, whom some make to be the same man with Ezra.
For themselves, and for their sons] Whom they herein helped to a cold armful (as
Lycephron calleth a bad wife, ‫נבסבדךבכיףלב‬ ‫,)רץקסןם‬ or rather to an unnatural heat,
worse than that of a quartan ague, as said Simonides; as bad as that of an evil spirit,
said another heathen.
So that the holy seed] i.e. The children of Israel, who were all federally holy at least,
Deuteronomy 7:6, as are also all the children of Christian parents, 1 Corinthians
7:14.
Hath been chief in this trespass] Which they think audaciously to bear out with
their big looks, to obtrude and justify to the world this most malapert
misdemeanour, because it is facinus maioris abollae, the fact of a great one
(Juvenal).
LA GE, "Ezra 9:2. For they have taken of their daughters, etc.—namely, wives.
comp. chap, Ezra 10:44; 2 Chronicles 11:21, etc. The object ‫ים‬ ִ‫ָשׁ‬‫נ‬ is in this
connection, to a certain extent, to be understood of itself.—And have mingled
themselves as the holy seed with the people of the land.—This has properly the same

subject as the foregoing. The following ‫שׁ‬ֶ‫ֹד‬ ‫ַקּ‬‫ה‬ ‫ע‬ ַ‫ֶר‬‫ז‬ is to be placed in apposition with
the subject, as it seems; that is to say, although they are a new and holy seed, or
shoot, which, after the old tree had fallen by the severe judgments of God, was) to
grow up into a new and better tree. Since the expression “holy seed” does not occur
again elsewhere, it is not doubtful but that there is here a reference back to Isaiah
6:13. That at least the better part of the people had not yet by any means forgotten
the ancient prophets, but preserved them at the present time to strengthen their
faith, follows already from Haggai and Zechariah, where the Messianic promise, on
the basis of the more ancient prophecy, yet again brought forth the richest
flowers.—Yea, the hand of the princes—rulers hath been chief in this trespass.—In
this unfaithfulness the princes had been leaders with their bad example, assuming
thereby the responsibility, comp. Deuteronomy 13:10. ‫ַל‬‫ע‬ַ‫מ‬, properly unfaithfulness
(comp. Leviticus 5:15) is spoken of, in so far as they had abandoned the blessing of
the purity of Israel and periled thereby the higher blessings connected therewith.
‫ִים‬‫נ‬ָ‫ג‬ְ‫ס‬ = commanders, chiefs, is a word passing over from the ancient Persian into the
Hebrew, comp. Isaiah 41:25.
PULPIT, "The holy seed. Compare Isaiah 6:13. The "seed of Israel," however much
it polluted itself by transgressions, was still "holy" by profession, by call, by
obligation, by prophetic announcement. They were "a kingdom of priests, a holy
nation" (Exodus 19:6); bound to be "separated from all the people that were on the
face of the earth" (Exodus 33:16), and to keep themselves a "peculiar people."
When they mingled themselves with the people of the lands, they not only broke a
positive command (Deuteronomy 7:3), but did their best to frustrate God's entire
purpose in respect of them, and to render all that he had done for them of no effect.
The hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in the trespass. "Princes and
rulers" are here opposed to people of the middle and lower ranks. The upper
classes, whether clerical or lay, had been the chief offenders (see Ezra 10:18); and
compare the similar defection of Jews of the upper classes in ehemiah's time
( ehemiah 6:17, ehemiah 6:18; ehemiah 13:4, ehemiah 13:28).
3
When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak,
pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down
appalled.

BAR ES, "Plucking out the hair with the hands, so common among the Classical
nations, is, comparatively speaking, rarely mentioned as practiced by Asiatics.
CLARKE, "I rent my garment and my mantle - The outer and inner garment, in
sign of great grief. This significant act is frequently mentioned in the sacred writings,
and was common among all ancient nations.
Plucked off the hair - Shaving the head and beard were signs of excessive grief;
much more so the plucking off the hair, which must produce exquisite pain. All this
testified his abhorrence, not merely of the act of having taken strange wives, but their
having also joined them in their idolatrous abominations.
GILL, "And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle,....
Both inward and outward garments, that which was close to his body, and that which
was thrown loose over it; and this he did in token of sorrow and mourning, as if
something very dreadful and distressing, see Job_1:20
and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard; did not shave them, and so
transgressed not the law in Lev_19:27 but plucked off the hair of them, to show his
extreme sorrow for what was told him: which has frequently been done by mourners on
sorrowful occasions in various nations, see Isa_15:2. So in the apocryphal "addition" to
Esther,"And laid away her glorious apparel, and put on the garments of anguish and
mourning: and instead of precious ointments, she covered her head with ashes and
dung, and she humbled her body greatly, and all the places of her joy she filled with her
torn hair.'' (Esther 14:2)she is said to fill every place of joy with the tearing of her hair;
and Lavinia in Virgil (k); several passages from Homer (l), and other writers, both Greek
and Latin, are mentioned by Bochart (m) as instances of it:
and sat down astonished; quite amazed at the ingratitude of the people, that after
such favours shown them, in returning them from captivity unto their own land, and
settling them there, they should give into practices so contrary to the will of God.
HE RY, " The impression this made upon Ezra (Ezr_9:3): He rent his clothes,
plucked off his hair, and sat down astonished. Thus he expressed the deep sense he had,
1. Of the dishonour hereby done to God. It grieved him to the heart to think that a people
called by his name should so grossly violate his law, should be so little benefited by his
correction, and make such bad returns for his favours. 2. Of the mischief the people had
hereby done to themselves and the danger they were in of the wrath of God breaking out
against them. Note, (1.) The sins of others should be our sorrow, and the injury done by
them to God's honour and the souls of men is what we should lay to heart. (2.) Sorrow
for sin must be great sorrow; such Ezra's was, as for an only son or a first-born. (3.) The
scandalous sins of professors are what we have reason to be astonished at. We may stand
amazed to see men contradict, disparage, prejudice, ruin, themselves. Strange that men
should act so inconsiderately and so inconsistently with themselves! Upright men are
astonished at it.
JAMISO , "when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle,

etc. — 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.
K&D, "This information threw Ezra into deep grief and moral consternation. The
tearing of the upper and under garments was a sign of heartfelt and grievous affliction
(Jos_8:6); see remarks on Lev_10:6. The plucking out of (a portion of) the hair was the
expression of violent wrath or moral indignation, comp. Neh_13:25, and is not to be
identified with the cutting off of the hair in mourning Job_1:20). “And sat down
stunned;” ‫ם‬ ֵ‫ּומ‬‫שׁ‬ ְ‫,מ‬ desolate, rigid, stunned, without motion. While he was sitting thus,
there were gathered unto him all who feared the word of God concerning the
transgression of those that had been carried away. ‫ד‬ ֵ‫ר‬ ָ‫,ח‬ trembling, being terrified,
generally construed with ‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ or ‫ל‬ ֶ‫א‬ (e.g., Isa_66:2, Isa_66:5), but here with ְ‫ב‬ (like verbs of
embracing, believing), and meaning to believe with trembling in the word which God
had spoken concerning this ‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ ַ‫,מ‬ i.e., thinking with terror of the punishments which such
faithless conduct towards a covenant God involved.
COFFMA , "Verse 3
THE ASTO ISHME T A D HORROR OF EZRA
"And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my robe, and plucked off the
hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded. Then were assembled
unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the
trespass of them of the captivity; and I sat confounded until the evening sacrifice."
Ezra's reaction to the bad news was extreme. There is hardly anything more painful
than pulling out the hairs of one's beard. Similar actions were customary among
Oriental peoples as an expression of grief, dismay, or consternation (Job 1:20;
Ezekiel 7:18). " otice that Ezra's appeal was moral and religious ... reformation can
never be achieved by force."[9] As the chief authority, Ezra could have ordered the
needed reforms and enforced them even with the death penalty; but he chose the
better way.
Oesterley commented that, in Ezra's strict enforcement of the prohibition of mixed
marriages, "His zeal in this matter resulted in his going beyond the requirements of
the law (Deuteronomy 23:7)."[10] That passage states that, "Thou shalt not abhor
an Edomite ... or an Egyptian ... The children of the third generation of them that
are born unto them shall enter into the assembly of Jehovah"; but there is nothing
in that passage that justifies Oesterley's conclusion.
BE SO , "Ezra 9:3. When I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle,
&c. — Both my inner and my upper garment. This was a token, not only of his very
great grief and sorrow, but of his sense of God’s displeasure at their conduct. For

the Jews were wont to rend their clothes, when they apprehended God to be highly
offended. And plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard — This was still a
higher sign of exceeding great grief. For, in ordinary sorrow, they only neglected
their hair, and let it hang down scattered in a careless manner; but this was used in
bitter lamentations. And sat down astonied — Through grief and shame at their sin,
that they should be so ungrateful to God, who had so lately delivered them from
captivity; and through an apprehension of some great and dreadful judgment
befalling them, because of so open a violation of the divine law, the transgression of
which had formerly proved their ruin.
TRAPP, "Ezra 9:3 And 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.
Ver. 3. I rent my garment and my mantle] In token of his deep and downright
humiliation, indignation, detestation of their dealing therein.
And plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard] To show how passionately
grieved and offended he was. The raging Turk did the like at the last assault of
Scodra; being extremely vexed at the dishonour and loss he had received there. But
what followed? In his choler and frantic rage he most horribly blasphemed God;
whereas holy Ezra, though he sat astonied till the evening sacrifice, yet then he
poureth forth his soul in a heavenly prayer, Ezra 9:5-6.
And sat down astonied] As one that hath neither life nor soul (as we say), that can
neither say nor do for himself, being wonderfully amazed, astonished, or desolate, as
David had been, Psalms 143:4. The true zealot, as his love is fervent, his desires
eager, his delights ravishing, his hopes longing; so his hatred is deadly, his anger
fierce, his grief deep, his fear terrible, &c. Zeal is an extreme heat of all the
affections, Romans 12:11, boiling hot, hissing hot, as the Greek importeth ( ‫.)זוןםפוע‬
LA GE, "Ezra 9:3. Ezra could not but express the deepest pain at this information,
as well as the greatest displeasure, and indeed with the warmth of Oriental
manners; none the less that there must be applied a remedy, only to be carried out
with difficulty, and occasioning much sorrow. He expressed his grief by rending
(tearing) his under and over-garment (comp. Leviticus 10:6 and Joshua 7:6), his
displeasure and anger by plucking out the hair of the head and beard (a part of it),
comp. eb13:25; that is to say, he hurt himself and disfigured his appearance
(comp. Isaiah 50:6); if he had only been sad, he would have shaved his head; Job
1:20. In this condition he then sat down staring, ‫ם‬ֵ‫מ‬ָ‫שׁ‬ in Piel expresses the being stiff
and dull (hence also the being waste), comp. Isaiah 52:14.
Ezra 9:4. Ezra’s behaviour produced a profound impression upon those who feared
God’s word; because of the unfaithfulness of‫ָה‬‫ל‬‫ַגוֹ‬‫ה‬, the people of God living in
captivity Ezra continued his behaviour herein even when they assembled themselves
unto him. According to Ezra 10:3 we are not to explain: all who trembled at the

word of God on account of the unfaithfulness, etc.; although ‫ד‬ ֵ‫ָר‬‫ח‬ may be connected
with ‫ַל‬‫ע‬ ( Isaiah 66:2, where ‫ַל‬‫ע‬, indeed=‫ל‬ֶ‫,א‬ in the sense of trembling towards, comp.
Isaiah 66:5), but: all who allowed themselves to be frightened by God’s words,
which referred to the unfaithfulness. God is here called the God of Israel because He
had in the words in question called for the purity and dignity of Israel.
PULPIT, "EZRA'S ASTO ISHME T A D HORROR (Ezra 9:3, Ezra 9:4). In
Babylonia, whence Ezra had come, the inclination to intermarry with the heathen
had not, it would seem, shown itself. Exiles in a foreign land naturally cling to each
other under their adverse circumstances, and, moreover, being despised by those
among whom they sojourn, are not readily accepted by them into social fellowship,
much less into affinity and alliance. Thus the thing was to Ezra a new thing. His
familiarity with the Law, and, perhaps we may add, his insight into the grounds
upon which the Law upon this point was founded, caused him to view the matter as
one of the gravest kind, and to feel shocked and horror-struck at what was told him
respecting it. He showed his feelings with the usual openness and abandon of an
Oriental: first rending both his outer and his inner garments, then tearing his hair
and his beard, and finally" sitting down astonied," motionless and speechless, until
the time of the evening sacrifice. Such a manifestation of horror and amazement was
well calculated to impress and affect the sympathetic and ardent people over whom
Providence had placed him.
Ezra 9:3
I rent my garment and my mantle. Rending the clothes was always, and still is, one
of the commonest Oriental modes of showing grief. Reuben rent his clothes when his
brothers sold Joseph to the Midianites, and Jacob did the same when he believed
that Joseph was dead (Genesis 37:29, Genesis 37:34). Job "rent his mantle" on
learning the death of his sons and daughters (Job 1:20); and his friends "rent every
one his mantle when they came to mourn with him and comfort him" (Job 2:11, Job
2:12). Rent clothes indicated that a messenger was a messenger of woe (1 Samuel
4:12; 2 Samuel 1:2), or that a man had heard something that had greatly shocked
him, and of which he wished to express his horror (2 Kings 18:37; Matthew 26:65).
Ezra's action is of this last kind, expressive of horror more than of grief, but
perhaps in some degree of grief also. And plucked off the hair of my head and of my
beard. These are somewhat unusual signs of grief among the Orientals, who were
wont to shave the head in great mourning, but seldom tore the hair out by the roots.
The practice is not elsewhere mentioned in Scripture, excepting in the apocryphal
books (1 Esdras 8:71; 2 Esdras 1:8; Apoc. Esther 4:2). And sat down astonied.
Compare Daniel 4:19; Daniel 8:27, where the same verb is used in the same sense.
4

Then everyone who trembled at the words of the
God of Israel gathered around me because of this
unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there
appalled until the evening sacrifice.
CLARKE, "Those that had been carried away - Those that had returned long
before with Zerubbabel; see Ezr_9:1.
Until the evening sacrifice - The morning sacrifice was the first of all the offerings
of the day, the evening sacrifice the last. As the latter was offered between the two
evenings, i.e., between sunset and the end of twilight, so the former was offered between
break of day and sunrise. Ezra sat astonied - confounded in his mind, distressed in his
soul, and scarcely knowing what to do. He probably had withdrawn himself into some
sequestered place, or into some secret part of the temple, spending the time in
meditation and reflection.
GILL, "There were assembled unto me everyone that trembled at the words
of the God of Israel,.... That had a reverence for the word of God, and the things
contained in it; feared to break the laws of God, and trembled at his judgments, which
they might apprehend would come upon transgressors, see Isa_46:2,
because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; into
Babylon, and were now returned, and which was an aggravation of their transgression:
and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice: or until the ninth hour, as the
Syriac version, which was about our three o'clock in the afternoon, at which time the
evening sacrifice was offered; perhaps it was in the morning when Ezra first received his
information from the princes.
HE RY, " The influence which Ezra's grief for this had upon others. We may
suppose that he went up to the house of the Lord, there to humble himself, because he
had an eye to God in his grief and that was the proper place for deprecating his
displeasure. Public notice was soon taken of it, and all the devout serious people that
were at hand assembled themselves to him, it should seem of their own accord, for
nothing is said of their being sent, to, Ezr_9:4. Note, 1. It is the character of good people
that they tremble at God's word; they stand in awe of the authority of its precepts and
the severity and justice of its threatenings, and to those that do so will God look, Isa_
66:2. 2. Those that tremble at the word of God cannot but tremble at the sins of men, by
which the law of God is broken and his wrath and curse are incurred. 3. The pious zeal of
one against sin may perhaps provoke very many to the like, as the apostle speaks in
another case, 2Co_9:2. Many will follow who have not consideration, talent, and

courage, enough to lead in a good work. 4. All good people ought to own those that
appear and act in the cause of God against vice and profaneness, to stand by them, and
do what they can to strengthen their hands.
JAMISO , "Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the
words of the God of Israel, etc. — 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.
BE SO , "Ezra 9:4. Then were assembled unto me — To join with me, both in
lamenting the sin, and in endeavouring to effect the redress of it; every one that
trembled at the words of the God of Israel — Who stood in awe of God and of his
word, and durst not violate his commands; or who feared his threatenings against
those that did so, and trembled for fear of God’s judgments upon them, and upon
the whole land for their sakes, as the following words imply. Compare Isaiah 66:2;
Isaiah 66:5. Because of the transgression of those that had been carried away — To
wit, into captivity, and were safely returned from it, but yet were little amended,
either by their former banishment, or their late restoration. He speaks not of those
who had lately come back with himself, but of those who had returned with
Zerubbabel, and of their children. And I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice —
When the people used to assemble together. All good people ought to own those that
appear and act for God against vice and profaneness. Every one that fears God
ought to stand by them, and do what he can to strengthen their hands.
TRAPP, "Ezra 9:4 Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the
words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been
carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.
Ver. 4. Then were assembled unto me] It was soon noised and noticed among the
godly party how exceedingly Ezra was troubled; they therefore trouble themselves,
as our Saviour is said to have done, John 11:33, and as Paul felt twinges when others
were hurt. "Who is offended," saith he, "and I burn not?" 2 Corinthians 11:29.
Sheep, when frighted, will get together; swine, when lugged, will grunt together.
What should saints do (in case of national sins or judgments) but assemble and
tremble together, as here; but vow and perform reformation to the Lord their God,
as in the next chapter.
Every one that trembled at the words] At the judgments of God whilst they yet hang

in the threatenings. To such looketh the Lord with special intimations of his love,
Isaiah 66:2. When as those that tremble not in hearing shall be crushed to pieces in
feeling, said Mr Bradford the martyr.
That had been carried away] But had not learned by the things that they had
suffered, were as bad as before, if not worse, having lost the fruit of their afflictions,
‫לבטחלבפב‬ ‫.נבטחלבפב‬ This is fearful; a bad sign of an incorrigible castaway, Jeremiah
6:30.
Until the evening sacrifice] This time of the day good people usually took to pray at;
that, together with the sacrifice, their prayers might come up for a memorial before
God in those pillars of smoke, Song of Solomon 3:6, Acts 10:4. See Luke 1:10, Acts
3:11.
WHEDO , "4. Every one that trembled — Ezra was not alone in grief and dismay
over the sins of the people. Others with him realized the peril of the hour, and
trembled with a profound sense of their danger. For should Divine vengeance burst
upon the camp, the innocent and guilty would suffer together. Among those that
trembled at the words of the God of Israel were also, doubtless, some of the
transgressors who had been brought to realize their guilt and danger.
The evening sacrifice — The law ordained that a lamb should be offered each day,
morning and evening, and these offerings were called respectively the morning and
evening sacrifices. See Exodus 29:38-41. Comp. also 1 Kings 18:29, note. While the
people mingled with the heathen, and openly transgressed, they continued to
sacrifice to Jehovah, thus apparently forgetting that obedience is better than
sacrifice.
PULPIT, "Then were assembled unto me. The open manifestation by Ezra of his
grief and horror produced an immediate effect. A crowd assembled around him,
attracted by the unusual sight—partly sympathizing, partly no doubt curious. Every
one came that trembled at the words of the God of Israel; by which is meant not so
much all God-fearing persons (see Isaiah 66:2) as all who were alarmed at the
transgression of the commands of God (Ezra 10:3), and at the threats which the
Law contained against transgressors (Deuteronomy 7:4). Because of the
transgression of those that had been carried away. The transgression of "the
children of the captivity" (Ezra 4:1)—of those who had been removed to Babylon
and had returned under Zerubbabel. I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice. As
morning is the time for business in the East, we may assume that the princes had
waited upon Ezra tolerably early in the day—before noon, at any rate—to
communicate their intelligence. The evening sacrifice took place at three in the
afternoon. Ezra must, therefore, either from the intensity of his own feelings or with
the view of impressing the people, have "sat astonied"—speechless and motionless—
for several hours.

5
Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-
abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell
on my knees with my hands spread out to the
LORD my God
CLARKE, "Fell upon my knees - In token of the deepest humility. Spread out my
hands, as if to lay hold on the mercy of God. We have already had occasion to explain
these significant acts.
GILL, "And at the evening sacrifice I rose up from my heaviness,.... The signs
and tokens of it, particularly sitting on the ground; or "from my fasting" (n), having
eaten nothing that day, it being early in the morning when he was told the above case:
and having rent my garment and my mantle; which he had done before, and still
kept them on him in the same case:
fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God; in the
posture and with the gesture of an humble supplicant.
HE RY, "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 9 commentary

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Ezra 9 commentary