Ezra 9:6

6 and said, O my God, I am confused and ashamed to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities have multiplied over our head, and our guiltiness is grown up unto heaven.

Ezra 9:6 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 9:6

And said, O my God
Here begins the prayer of Ezra, and that with faith in God as covenant God, even when he was about to make confession of sin, and repentance for it; that prayer is right which is put up in faith, and that repentance genuine which is accompanied with faith, and flows from it:

I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God;
a true sight and sense of sin causes shame and blushing, and never more than when a man is sensible of his covenant interest in God, and of his grace and favour to him, particularly in the forgiveness of his sin, see ( Ezekiel 16:61 Ezekiel 16:63 )

for our iniquities are increased over our head;
arisen and swelled like mighty waters, which seemed to threaten an overwhelming of them:

and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens;
being done in an open, public, and insolent manner, and in such numbers, that they were, as it were, piled up in heaps, reaching to heaven, and calling down vengeance from thence. Ezra includes himself as being one of the same nation; and these sins being so common were become national ones, which involved all the individuals, and exposed them to the divine resentment.

Ezra 9:6 In-Context

4 Then each one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the transgression of those that had been carried away were assembled unto me; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.

5 And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my affliction; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God

6 and said, O my God, I am confused and ashamed to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities have multiplied over our head, and our guiltiness is grown up unto heaven.

7 Since the days of our fathers, we have been in great guiltiness unto this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

8 And now as for a brief moment there has been the mercy of the LORD our God, to leave us an escape, and that we may be given a stake in his holy sanctuary that our God may illuminate our eyes and give us a little preservation of life in our bondage.