Ezra 9

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The report of the leaders

¹ When these things were done, the leaders came near to me, saying, "The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. ² For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands; and the hand of the leaders and officials has been foremost in this unfaithfulness."

Ezra's grief

³ When I heard this, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled out some of the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down appalled. ⁴ Then everyone who trembled at the words of the Elohim of Israel gathered to me because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles, and I sat appalled until the evening offering.

Ezra's prayer

⁵ And at the evening offering I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to Yahweh my Elohim, ⁶ and I said, "O my Elohim, I am ashamed and I blush to lift up my face to You, my Elohim, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. ⁷ From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt; and for our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day. ⁸ And now for a brief moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our Elohim, to leave us a remnant that has escaped and to give us a nail in His holy place, that our Elohim may brighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage. ⁹ For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our Elohim has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us before the kings of Persia, to give us reviving, to raise up the house of our Elohim and to restore its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

¹⁰ And now, O our Elohim, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, ¹¹ which You commanded by the hand of Your servants the prophets, saying, 'The land which you are entering to possess is a land unclean with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations, with which they have filled it from end to end in their impurity. ¹² Now therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.'

¹³ And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You, our Elohim, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, ¹⁴ shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would You not be angry with us until You had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant and no one to escape? ¹⁵ O Yahweh, Elohim of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant that has escaped, as it is this day. Here we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this."

Notes

• 9:1 The leaders describe the problem in the words of the Torah: the list joins the peoples of Deuteronomy 7:1 to the Ammonites, Moabites and Egyptians of Deuteronomy 23:3-8. The concern they name is "their abominations," the practices for which, Leviticus says, "the land vomited out its inhabitants" (Leviticus 18:25), and which were forbidden to "the native" and "the stranger who sojourns among you" alike (18:26). Verse 2 calls the people "the holy seed": holy (qodesh) means set apart to Yahweh, as "a holy people to Yahweh your Elohim" (Deuteronomy 7:6).
• 9:5 The "evening offering" (minchat ha'erev) was offered at the house in the afternoon, and it was a set time of prayer: Elijah prayed "at the time of offering the evening offering" (1 Kings 18:36), and Daniel was praying at that hour in Babylon (Daniel 9:21). In the first century the afternoon sacrifice still marked "the hour of prayer, the ninth hour," when Peter and John went up to the temple (Acts 3:1). "Fasting" (ta'anit) comes from the same root as "humble ourselves" in 8:21.
• 9:6 Ezra had not taken a foreign wife, yet he does not say "their iniquities" but "our iniquities" and "our guilt." Like Daniel (Daniel 9:5-8) and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1:6-7), he stands with his people and confesses their sin as his own. The prayer asks for nothing; it confesses, recalls Yahweh's kindness, and ends by casting the people on His righteousness (verse 15).
• 9:8 A "nail" (yated) is a tent peg or a peg driven firmly into a wall (Isaiah 22:23); the small community and its house in Jerusalem are a secure hold, fixed in Yahweh's holy place. To "brighten the eyes" is to give new strength, as when Jonathan ate the honey "and his eyes brightened" (1 Samuel 14:27). "Reviving" (michyah) is a little life given back. In verse 9 the "wall" (gader) is a protective fence, a picture of the protection Yahweh gave through the kings of Persia; it is not the city wall of Nehemiah's day.
• 9:11 The words Ezra cites are not one verse but a summary of the Torah's warnings: the land made unclean by the nations' abominations (Leviticus 18:24-28), the command not to intermarry (Deuteronomy 7:3), and not to "seek their peace nor their prosperity" (Deuteronomy 23:6). He calls them the words of "Your servants the prophets"; Moses himself was a prophet, the greatest of them (Deuteronomy 18:15; 34:10).

Ezra 8 · Ezra 10

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