Ezra 8:21

The Events of the Journey

21 30. Preparations for the journey. (a) 21 23. The rendezvous and solemn fast at Ahava

21. I proclaimed a fast For "fasting" see also on Ezra 9:3; Ezra 10:6. Here however the fast is not proclaimed in connexion with any special commission of sin. Ezra appoints the fast (a) as the symbol of submission before God's will and of repentance from sin, (b) as the means of intensifying religious fervour in prayer through the restraint laid upon physical appetite, (c) as the testimony that -man lives not by bread alone".

Viewed in this aspect, the public fast proclaimed by Ezra was a spiritual exercise; from which the pagan notion of propitiating God's favour by voluntary human suffering was altogether absent. Cf. 2 Chronicles 20:3.

Compare the fast of Judas Maccabeus and his companions (1Ma 3:47) before they addressed themselves to the conflict with the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes.

thatwe might afflict ourselves R.V. that we might humble ourselves. A moral not a physical discipline. The self-affliction or humiliation is expressed by a verb which gave rise to the regular word in later Hebrew for fasting, "Taanith".

a right way R.V. a straight way. Both a direct road, that they might not have to turn aside on account of attacks and dangers from robbers or enemies, and a level road without obstacles and inequalities. Cf. Isaiah 40:3, -make straight(or level) in the desert a high way for our God"; where the same word occurs.

our substance same word as is rendered -goods" in ch. Ezra 1:6 (see note).