@Ezr 9:1-4. EZRA MOURNS FOR THE AFFINITY OF THE PEOPLE WITH STRANGERS.
1, 2. Now when these things were done--The first days after Ezra's
arrival in Jerusalem were occupied in executing the different trusts
committed to him. The nature and design of the office with which the
royal authority had invested him was publicly made known to his own
people by the formal delivery of the contribution and the sacred
vessels brought from Babylon to the priests to be deposited in the
temple. Then his credentials were privately presented to the provincial
governors; and by this prudent, orderly proceeding he put himself in
the best position to avail himself of all the advantages guaranteed him
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 practised respecting the
law of marriage.
the princes came to me, saying--The information they lodged with Ezra
was to the effect that numbers of the people, in violation of the
divine law (@De 7:2,3), had contracted marriages with Gentile women,
and that the guilt of the disorderly practice, far from being confined
to the lower classes, was shared in by several of the priests and
Levites, as well as of the leading men in the country. This great
irregularity would inevitably bring many evils in its train; it would
encourage and increase idolatry, as well as break down the barriers of
distinction which, for important purposes, God had raised between the
Israelites and all other people. Ezra foresaw these dangerous
consequences, but was overwhelmed with a sense of the difficulty of
correcting the evil, when matrimonial alliances had been formed,
families had been reared, affections engaged, and important interests
established.
3. when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle--the outer
and inner garment, which was a token not only of great grief, but of
dread at the same time of the divine wrath;
plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard--which was a still
more significant sign of overpowering grief.
4. Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of
the God of Israel, &c.--All the pious people who reverenced God's word
and dreaded its threatenings and judgments joined with Ezra in
bewailing the public sin, and devising the means of redressing it.
I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice--The intelligence of so
gross a violation of God's law by those who had been carried into
captivity on account of their sins, and who, though restored, were yet
unreformed, produced such a stunning effect on the mind of Ezra that he
remained for a while incapable either of speech or of action. The hour
of the evening sacrifice was the usual time of the people assembling;
and at that season, having again rent his hair and garments, he made
public prayer and confession of sin.
@Ezr 9:5-15. PRAYS TO GOD.
5-15. I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God--The burden of his prayer, which was dictated by a deep sense of the emergency, was that he was overwhelmed at the flagrant enormity of this sin, and the bold impiety of continuing in it after having, as a people, so recently experienced the heavy marks of the divine displeasure. God had begun to show returning favor to Israel by the restoration of some. But this only aggravated their sin, that, so soon after their re-establishment in their native land, they openly violated the express and repeated precepts which commanded them to extirpate the Canaanites. Such conduct, he exclaimed, could issue only in drawing down some great punishment from offended Heaven and ensuring the destruction of the small remnant of us that is left, unless, by the help of divine grace, we repent and bring forth the fruits of repentance in an immediate and thorough reformation.