Ezra 9:1

_NOW WHEN THESE THINGS WERE DONE, THE PRINCES CAME TO ME, SAYING, THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, AND THE PRIESTS, AND THE LEVITES, HAVE NOT SEPARATED THEMSELVES FROM THE PEOPLE OF THE LANDS, DOING ACCORDING TO THEIR ABOMINATIONS, EVEN OF THE CANAANITES, THE HITTITES, THE PERIZZITES, THE JEBUSITES, THE AMMONITES, THE MOABITES, THE EGYPTIANS, AND THE AMORITES._ 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 th...

1-4 Many corruptions lurk out of the view of the most careful rulers. Some of the people disobeyed the express command of God, which forbade all marriages with the heathen, Ezra 9:7. Disbelief of God's all-sufficiency, is at the bottom of the sorry shifts we make to help ourselves. They exposed themselves and their children to the peril of idolatry, that had ruined their church and nation. Carnal professors may make light of such connexions, and try to explain away the exhortations to be separate; but those who are best acquainted with the word of God, will treat the subject in another manner. They must forebode the worst from such unions. The evils excused, and even pleaded for; by many professors, astonish and cause regret in the true believer. All who profess to be God's people, ought to strengthen those that appear and act against vice and profaneness....

CHAPTER IX _The princes inform Ezra that many of the people now settled_ _in the had married heathen wives; and several of the rulers_ _were principal offenders in this thing_, 1, 2. _He is greatly afflicted_, 3, 4. _His prayer to God on thus account_, 5-15. NOTES ON CHAP. IX Verse Ezra 9:1. _THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL_] These were they who had returned at first with Zerubbabel, and were settled in the land of Judea and whom Ezra found on his arrival to be little better than the Canaanitish nations from whom God had commanded them ever to keep separate....

ABOMINATIONS - The mixed marriages had prevented that complete separation of the people of God from the idolatrous rites, or “abominations,” which the Law required, and which was necessary for purity of religion. See 1 Kings 11:2 note....

§ 2. REFORMATION OF RELIGION ACCOMPLISHED BY EZRA AT JERUSALEM. EXPOSITION IN the interval between Zerubbabel's rule and the coming of Ezra from Babylon with a special commission appointing him governor of Judaea, the Jews seem to have been left without any strong controlling authority. The civil administration devolved upon a certain number of chiefs or "princes," who maintained order in Jerusalem, collected and remitted the tribute due to the Persian crown, and held courts to decide all causes, criminal and civil, in which only Jews were concerned. Tranquillity and order were sufficiently maintained in this way; but the governing power was weak, and in matters outside the range of the civil and criminal law men did pretty nearly "as it seemed good in their own eyes." During this interval of governmenta

NOW WHEN THESE THINGS WERE DONE,.... When the captives with Ezra had refreshed themselves, and weighed the money and vessels they brought, and put them into the hands of proper persons, and offered sacrifices, and delivered the king's commissions to his lieutenants and governors, and shown his own: THE PRINCES CAME TO ME; some of the nobles of Israel, the most religious of them, who were concerned at the corruptions that were among them, though not a sufficient number to reform them: SAYING THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, AND THE PRIESTS, AND THE LEVITES, HAVE NOT SEPARATED THEMSELVES FROM THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND: but joined with them, though not in idolatrous practices, yet by marrying with them, which might lead them into them: DOING ACCORDING TO THEIR ABOMINATIONS; not serving idols as they did, but imitating them in their marriages: even of the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the...

CHAPTER 9 _ 1. Ezra's astonishment and grief (Ezra 9:1)_ 2. Ezra's confession and prayer (Ezra 9:5) Ezra 9:1. When all these things had been done (that are related in chapter 8:33-36) Ezra was confronted by a very sad condition of the people, and even the priests and the Levites. The princes (civil leaders) came to Ezra and told him that the demanded separation according to the law, between God's people and the Canaanitish inhabitants of the land, had not been obeyed. The people had taken of their daughters for themselves and of their sons “so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of the lands; yea the hand of the princes and rulers hath been first in this trespass.” Not alone had they intermarried, b

REPORT IS MADE TO EZRA OF THE MARRIAGES OF JEWS WITH THE HEATHEN. Ezra's zeal in this matter resulted in his going beyond the requirements of the Law (_cf._ Deuteronomy 23:7). Ezra 9:1. the Canaanites. Amorites: with the Gentiles here enumerated _cf._ Deuteronomy 7:1. Ezra 9:2. holy seed: _cf._ Isaiah 61:3....

THE PRINCES. Not all of them. Compare Ezra 9:2. PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. See note on Ezra 2:2 and 1 Kings 12:17. PEOPLE. peoples, or nations. CANAANITES. Contrary to the law (Exodus 34:12; Deuteronomy 7:1). See App-23 and App-25....

Commencement of the Religious Reform Chap. Ezra 9:1-4. The Sin of the People 1. _Now when these_things _were done_ Cf. 2 Chronicles 31:1. A very indefinite note of time. We have two dates given by which we can conjecture the length of the interval that had occurred since the events narrated at the close of the previous chapter. (1) The sacred gifts had been handed over to the care of the priests and Levites on the 4th day of the _fifth_month, ch. Ezra 7:8; Ezra 8:33. (2) The summons for the general assembly, convened to enquire into the people's sin was sent out on the 27th date of the _ninth_month, ch....