Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.
when Ezra
Daniel 9:3,4,20 And I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, …
Acts 10:30 And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; …
when he had
Leviticus 26:40,41 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, …
Psalm 32:5 I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, …
Hosea 14:2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say to him, Take away …
1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth …
weeping
Psalm 119:136 Rivers of waters run down my eyes, because they keep not your law.
Jeremiah 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears…
Jeremiah 13:17 But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places …
Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of …
Luke 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Romans 9:2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
before the house
1 Kings 8:30 And listen you to the supplication of your servant, and of your people …
1 Kings 9:3 And the LORD said to him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication, …
2 Chronicles 20:9 If, when evil comes on us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, …
a very great
Deuteronomy 31:12 Gather the people together, men and women, and children, and your …
2 Chronicles 20:13 And all Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their …
Nehemiah 10:28 And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, …
Joel 2:16-18 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, …
Acts 21:5 And when we had accomplished those days, we departed and went our …
very sore. Heb. a great weeping
Judges 2:4,5 And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spoke these words …
Nehemiah 8:9 And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, …
And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.
Shechaniah
Ezra 10:26 And of the sons of Elam; Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, …
Nehemiah 3:29 After them repaired Zadok the son of Immer over against his house. …
Elam
Ezra 2:7,31 The children of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four…
Nehemiah 7:12,34 The children of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four…
We have trespassed (Shechaniah here speaks in the name of the people, not acknowledging himself culpable; for he is not in the following list.)
Compare
James 2:9 But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, and are convinced …
Exodus 34:12 Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants …
Nehemiah 13:27 Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil, to transgress …
yet now there is hope
Exodus 34:6,7 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The …
Isaiah 55:6,7 Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call you on him while he is near…
Jeremiah 3:12,13 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you …
1 John 1:7-9 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship …
Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.
let us make. Nichrath berith, 'let us cut a covenant:' see on
Deuteronomy 29:12 That you should enter into covenant with the LORD your God, and into …
Joshua 9:6 And they went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him, and …
2 Kings 11:17 And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the …
2 Chronicles 29:10 Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, …
2 Chronicles 34:31,32 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, …
Nehemiah 9:38 And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and …
Nehemiah 10:29 They joined to their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse, …
put away. Heb. bring forth. according to the counsel
2 Chronicles 30:12 Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the …
of those that
Ezra 9:4 Then were assembled to me every one that trembled at the words of …
2 Chronicles 34:21,27 Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel …
Psalm 119:59,120 I thought on my ways, and turned my feet to your testimonies…
Isaiah 66:2 For all those things has my hand made, and all those things have …
Ezekiel 9:4 And the LORD said to him, Go through the middle of the city, through …
at the commandment
Deuteronomy 7:2,3 And when the LORD your God shall deliver them before you; you shall …
Joshua 23:12,13 Else if you do in any wise go back, and join to the remnant of these …
let it
Nehemiah 8:14 And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses…
Nehemiah 13:1-3 On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the …
Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this …
1 Corinthians 7:12,13 But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother has a wife …
Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.
Arise
Joshua 7:10 And the LORD said to Joshua, Get you up; why lie you thus on your face?
1 Chronicles 22:16,19 Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no …
Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there …
for this matter (By the decree of Artaxerxes, Ezra was authorised to do every thing that the law of God required.)
Ezra 7:23-28 Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently …
Mark 13:34 For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his …
we also will
Joshua 1:16-18 And they answered Joshua, saying, All that you command us we will …
1 Chronicles 28:10,21 Take heed now; for the LORD has chosen you to build an house for …
be of good
Isaiah 35:3,4 Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees…
Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke to love and to good works:
Hebrews 12:12,13 Why lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees…
Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this word. And they sware.
arose
Proverbs 1:5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding …
Proverbs 9:9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a …
Proverbs 15:23 A man has joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due …
Proverbs 25:11,12 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver…
Proverbs 27:9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so does the sweetness of …
made
Ezra 10:3 Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all …
Nehemiah 5:12 Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of …
Nehemiah 10:29 They joined to their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse, …
Nehemiah 13:25 And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of …
Matthew 26:63 But Jesus held his peace, And the high priest answered and said to …
Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came thither, he did eat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away.
the chamber
Nehemiah 13:5 And he had prepared for him a great chamber, where aforetime they …
Johanan
Nehemiah 3:1,20 Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, …
Nehemiah 12:10,22 And Jeshua begat Joiakim, Joiakim also begat Eliashib, and Eliashib …
Nehemiah 13:28 And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, …
he did eat
Deuteronomy 9:18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and …
Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have …
John 4:31-34 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat…
he mourned
Ezra 9:4 Then were assembled to me every one that trembled at the words of …
Isaiah 22:12 And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to …
Daniel 9:3 And I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, …
And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem;
And that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away.
And that whosoever
Ezra 7:26 And whoever will not do the law of your God, and the law of the king, …
Judges 21:5 And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes …
1 Samuel 11:7 And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them …
forfeited. Heb. devoted
Leviticus 27:28 Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote to the …
Joshua 6:19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are …
himself separated
Nehemiah 13:3 Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated …
Matthew 18:17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church: but …
John 9:22,34 These words spoke his parents, because they feared the Jews: for …
John 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yes, the time comes, that …
1 Corinthians 5:13 But them that are without God judges. Therefore put away from among …
Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.
the ninth month (That is, some time in December, which is the coldest and most rainy time of the year in Palestine. Dr. Russel, in his account of the weather at Aleppo, which very much resembles that in Judea, says, that the natives reckon the severity of the winter, which they call marbania, to last but forty days, beginning from the
Ezra 7:8,9 And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh …
Esther 2:16 So Esther was taken to king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the …
trembling
1 Samuel 12:17,18 Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call to the LORD, and he shall …
Jeremiah 10:10,13 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting …
great rain. Heb. showers
And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.
Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.
make confession
Leviticus 26:40-42 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, …
Joshua 7:19 And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give, I pray you, glory to the …
Psalm 32:5 I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, …
Proverbs 28:13 He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whoever confesses …
Jeremiah 3:13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against …
1 John 1:7-9 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship …
do his
Isaiah 1:16-18 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before …
Isaiah 56:4 For thus said the LORD to the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and …
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the …
Colossians 1:10 That you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful …
Hebrews 13:21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you …
separate
Ezra 9:1 Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, …
Nehemiah 13:3 Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated …
2 Corinthians 6:17 Why come out from among them, and be you separate, said the Lord, …
and from the
Deuteronomy 7:3,4 Neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall …
1 Corinthians 2:12-14 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit …
Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.
But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in this thing.
Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us.
our rulers
Deuteronomy 17:9,18,19 And you shall come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge that …
2 Chronicles 19:5-7 And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of …
the fierce
Numbers 25:4 And the LORD said to Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and …
Deuteronomy 13:17 And there shall stick nothing of the cursed thing to your hand: that …
Joshua 7:26 And they raised over him a great heap of stones to this day. So the …
2 Chronicles 29:10 Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, …
2 Chronicles 30:8 Now be you not stiff necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves …
Psalm 78:38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed …
Isaiah 12:1 And in that day you shall say, O LORD, I will praise you: though …
for this matter be turned from us. or, be turned from us, till this matter be dispatched
Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.
And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.
And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month.
And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken strange wives: namely, of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren; Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.
the sons
Ezra 9:1 Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, …
Leviticus 21:7,13-15 They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall …
1 Samuel 2:22-24 Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did to all Israel…
Nehemiah 13:28 And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, …
Jeremiah 23:11,14 For both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I …
Ezekiel 44:22 Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away…
Malachi 2:8,9 But you are departed out of the way; you have caused many to stumble …
1 Timothy 3:11 Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful …
Jeshua. See on
Ezra 2:2 Which came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, …
Ezra 3:2 Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers the priests, …
Ezra 5:2 Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son …
1 Chronicles 6:14,15 And Azariah begat Seraiah, and Seraiah begat Jehozadak…
Nehemiah 12:10 And Jeshua begat Joiakim, Joiakim also begat Eliashib, and Eliashib …
Haggai 1:1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the …
Zechariah 3:1 And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel …
Joshua. Maaseiah
Nehemiah 8:4,7 And Ezra the scribe stood on a pulpit of wood, which they had made …
And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass.
gave their hands (They bound themselves in the most solemn manner to do as the rest of the delinquents had done, and make and acknowledgment to God of their iniquity, by offering each a ram for a trespass offering.)
2 Kings 10:15 And when he was departed there, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of …
1 Chronicles 29:24 And all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise …
2 Chronicles 30:8 Now be you not stiff necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves …
Lamentations 5:6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to …
Galatians 2:9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived …
a ram
Leviticus 5:15,16 If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy …
Leviticus 6:4,6 Then it shall be, because he has sinned, and is guilty, that he shall …
And of the sons of Immer; Hanani, and Zebadiah.
And of the sons of Harim; Maaseiah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah.
And of the sons of Pashur; Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethaneel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
Also of the Levites; Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah, (the same is Kelita,) Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
Of the singers also; Eliashib: and of the porters; Shallum, and Telem, and Uri.
Moreover of Israel: of the sons of Parosh; Ramiah, and Jeziah, and Malchiah, and Miamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah.
Moreover of Israel (That is, as Calmet observes, simple Israelites; thus distinguished from the priests, Levites, and singers, mentioned in ver.
Ezra 10:18 And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken …
Ezra 10:23 Also of the Levites; Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah, (the same …
Ezra 10:24 Of the singers also; Eliashib: and of the porters; Shallum, and Telem, and Uri.
sons of Parosh
Ezra 2:3 The children of Parosh, two thousand an hundred seventy and two.
Nehemiah 7:8 The children of Parosh, two thousand an hundred seventy and two.
And of the sons of Elam; Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Eliah.
And of the sons of Zattu; Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and Zabad, and Aziza.
Of the sons also of Bebai; Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai.
And of the sons of Bani; Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, and Ramoth.
And of the sons of Pahathmoab; Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezaleel, and Binnui, and Manasseh.
And of the sons of Harim; Eliezer, Ishijah, Malchiah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,
Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah.
Of the sons of Hashum; Mattenai, Mattathah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei.
Of the sons of Bani; Maadai, Amram, and Uel,
Benaiah, Bedeiah, Chelluh,
Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,
Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasau,
And Bani, and Binnui, Shimei,
And Shelemiah, and Nathan, and Adaiah,
Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,
Machnadebai. or, Mabnadebai, according to some copies
Azareel, and Shelemiah, Shemariah,
Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph.
Of the sons of Nebo; Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, and Joel, Benaiah.
All these had taken strange wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children.
strange wives
Proverbs 2:16 To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the stranger which …
Proverbs 5:3,20 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth …
and some of them (This observation was probably intended to shew that only a few of them had children, and also how rigorously the law was put in execution. According to a passage in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew, Ezra offered a paschal lamb on this occasion, and addressed the people thus: 'And Ezra said to the people, This pass-over is our Saviour and our Refuge; and if ye will be persuaded of it, and let it enter into your hearts, that we are to humble to Him in a sign, and afterwards shall believe in Him, this place shall not be destroyed for ever, saith the Lord of hosts; but, if ye will not believe in Him, nor hearken to his preaching, ye shall be a laughing-stock to the Gentiles.' This was probably a marginal note added by some early Christian.
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE BOOK OF EZRA
This book details the events of a very interesting period of the Sacred History, when, according to the decree of Providence, the Jewish people were to be delivered from their captivity, at the expiration of seventy years, and restored to the land of their fathers. This book informs us how the Divine goodness accomplished this most gracious design, and the movers and agents He employed on the occasion. Ezra was undoubtedly the chief agent under God in effecting this arduous work; and his zeal, piety, knowledge, and discretion, appear here in a most conspicuous point of view, and claim our utmost admiration. Descended from Seraiah, in a direct line from Aaron, he seems to have united all the requisites of a profound statesmen with the functions of the sacerdotal character. He appears to have made the Sacred Scriptures, during the captivity, his peculiar study; and, perhaps assisted by Nehemiah and the great synagogue, he corrected the errors which had crept into the Sacred Writings, through the negligence or mistake of transcribers; he collected all the books of which the Sacred Scriptures then consisted, disposed them in their proper order, and settled the canon of Scriptures for his time; he occasionally added, under the dictation of the Holy Spirit, whatever appeared necessary for the purpose of illustrating, completing, or connecting them; he substituted the modern for the ancient names of some places, which had now become obsolete; and transcribed the whole of the Scriptures into the Chaldee character. He is said to have lived to the age of
