Ezra 9:1-9

Ezra’s Prayer About Intermarriage

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.
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.”
3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled.
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.
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
6 and prayed: “I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.
7 From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.
8 “But now, for a brief moment, the LORD our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place[a] in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage.
9 Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

Ezra 9:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZRA 9

Ezra being informed, by some of the princes who complained unto him, of the marriages of many of the Israelites with the people of the land, the Canaanites and others, was greatly grieved and distressed, Ezr 9:1-5, upon which he made a confession of their sins to God, with great shame, sorrow, and contrition, and deprecated the evils which they deserved, Ezr 9:6-15.

Cross References 28

  • 1. S Ezra 6:21; Nehemiah 9:2
  • 2. S Genesis 10:16; S Joshua 15:8
  • 3. Genesis 19:38
  • 4. S Genesis 19:37
  • 5. Exodus 13:5; Exodus 23:28; Deuteronomy 20:17; S Joshua 3:10; S Judges 3:5; 1 Kings 9:20; S 2 Chronicles 8:7; Nehemiah 9:8
  • 6. S Exodus 34:16; S Ruth 1:4
  • 7. Psalms 106:35
  • 8. S Exodus 22:31; S Leviticus 27:30; S Deuteronomy 14:2
  • 9. Ezra 10:2
  • 10. S Numbers 14:6
  • 11. S Exodus 32:19; S Exodus 33:4
  • 12. Ezra 10:3; Psalms 119:120; Isaiah 66:2,5
  • 13. Nehemiah 1:4; Psalms 119:136; Daniel 10:2
  • 14. S Exodus 29:41
  • 15. Nehemiah 8:6; Psalms 28:2; Psalms 134:2
  • 16. Jeremiah 31:19
  • 17. S 2 Chronicles 28:9; Job 42:6; Psalms 38:4; Isaiah 59:12; Jeremiah 3:25; Jeremiah 14:20; Revelation 18:5
  • 18. S 2 Chronicles 29:6
  • 19. Ezekiel 21:1-32
  • 20. S Deuteronomy 28:64
  • 21. S Deuteronomy 28:37
  • 22. Psalms 25:16; Psalms 67:1; Psalms 119:58; Isaiah 33:2
  • 23. S Genesis 45:7
  • 24. Ecclesiastes 12:11; Isaiah 22:23
  • 25. Psalms 13:3; Psalms 19:8
  • 26. S Exodus 1:14; Nehemiah 9:36
  • 27. S 2 Kings 25:28; Psalms 106:46; Ezra 7:28
  • 28. Psalms 69:35; Isaiah 43:1; Isaiah 44:26; Isaiah 48:20; Isaiah 52:9; Isaiah 63:9; Jeremiah 32:44; Zechariah 1:16-17

Footnotes 1

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