Ezra 10:9

all the men of Judah and Benjamin All the male population capable of attending. -Men of Judah and Benjamin", cf. Ezra 1:5; Ezra 4:1.

Itwas the ninth month R.V. it was the ninth month not a fresh sentence. The -ninth month" was Chislev, corresponding nearly to our December. The Assyrian month Ki-shilivu is the same name. The month is mentioned in Nehemiah 1:1; Zechariah 7:1. On the 15th of this month 168 b.c. the Temple was profaned and the altar polluted by Antiochus Epiphanes; on the 25th of this month, three years later, 165 b.c., Judas the Maccabee and his companions celebrated -the Dedication" or Purification of the Temple, which was afterwards observed as an annual festival (cf. John 10:22). See 1Ma 1:54; 1Ma 4:59. The general assembly was therefore summoned only fourmonths after Ezra's arrival (see Ezra 7:8).

sat in the street of the house of God R.V. sat in the broad place before the house of God. Literally -in the broad place of the house of God". Cf. Nehemiah 8:1 -And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place (A.V. street) that was before the water gate", and 3. An area belonging to -the house of God" in which the whole assembly could collect, must have been a large open court. See the same word in Deuteronomy 13:16 and 2 Samuel 21:12, where an open place or square in the middle of a town gives a truer sense than the word -street". The idea of the word in the original is width, not narrowness.

trembling because of this matter The popular apprehension was aroused to the utmost, partly by the penalty for non-attendance at the assembly (Ezra 10:8), partly by the rumours of the action proposed by Shecaniah and approved by the princes, partly by dread of Divine wrath at the national transgression. The verb used here for -trembling" occurs elsewhere in the O. T. only in Daniel 10:11 and Psalms 104:32.

and for the great rain R.V. marg. Heb. the rains. We must suppose that the rains, which prevail during December in Palestine, were on this occasion exceptionally -heavy" and seemed to the people to denote the Divine displeasure (cf. 1 Samuel 12:18), besides adding to the discomfort of gathering to Jerusalem. This was -the early rain" following after seed-time (cf. Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 5:24; Joel 2:23) as distinguished from -the latter rain" of spring-time.