And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God
Before he began to read in the book of the law, he addressed
himself to God in a short prayer, wholly in the benedictory way;
ascribing blessing, honour, and glory to him, celebrating his
being and perfections, setting forth his greatness and his
excellency, who was the author and giver of the law he was about
to read; and this he the rather did, that what he read might be
the more carefully attended to, and come with the greater
authority, weight, and influence on those that heard it; and so,
Maimonides F15 says, it is the custom with the
Jews, in their synagogues, for the reader, after he has opened
the book, and looked out the place he reads, to say this
blessing,
``Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who hath chosen us out of all people, and hath given us his law; blessed art thou, O Lord, who hast given us the law; and all the people answer, Amen;''as they now did, as follows:
and all the people answered, Amen, Amen:
repeating the word, to declare their hearty assent to what Ezra
had expressed; the Jews have many rules concerning pronouncing
the "Amen", that it must not be too quick, curt, and short, nor
with too high a voice F16:
with lifting up their hands;
a prayer gesture, to which the apostle refers, ( 1 Timothy
2:8 ) ,
and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with
their faces to
the ground;
expressing hereby the awful sense they had of the Divine Being,
and their profound adoration of him.