And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,
The cry belongs to Ezra's supplication to Heaven at the time of the evening sacrifice, offered on his knees with his garment and mantle torn and his hands spread out to the Lord. He prays ashamed and blushing to lift his face, overwhelmed with righteous indignation and grief at the people's ingratitude.
The question of what can be said after this looks back on God's recent goodness in again giving His people a foothold in their native land after the Babylonian captivity. He had shown grace for a little space to leave an escaped remnant, to give a nail in His holy place, to lighten their eyes and give a little reviving in bondage. He had not forsaken them in bondage but had extended mercy in the sight of the kings of Persia to set up the house of God, to repair its desolations, and to give a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem, punishing them less than their iniquities deserved and granting such deliverance.
Forsaking the commandments commanded through the servants the prophets means joining in affinity with the people of abominations by intermarrying with the surrounding heathen peoples and mingling the holy seed with them. Priests, Levites, princes, rulers and people alike transgressed the laws given to keep Israel separate from those nations as a safeguard against apostasy. This unfaithfulness repeats, despite the lessons of the past, the very mingling practiced since the days of the fathers that largely caused the captivity, when great trespass delivered them with their kings and priests into the hand of the kings of the lands to the sword, to captivity, to spoil and to confusion of face.
The prayer confesses iniquities increased over the head and trespass grown up to the heavens, acknowledging the God of Israel as righteous while His escaped remnant stands before Him in trespass unable to stand because of it. It warns that to break the commandments again would provoke God to anger till His people were consumed with no remnant nor escaping. The verse shows Ezra humbling himself in the work of reform, confessing his own sins and the sins of his people and entreating pardon as if he himself were the offender, patiently toiling, praying and suffering together with Nehemiah.
The cry belongs to Ezra's supplication to Heaven at the time of the evening sacrifice, offered on his knees with his garment and mantle torn and his hands spread out to the Lord. He prays ashamed and blushing to lift his face, overwhelmed with righteous indignation and grief at the people's ingratitude.
The question of what can be said after this looks back on God's recent goodness in again giving His people a foothold in their native land after the Babylonian captivity. He had shown grace for a little space to leave an escaped remnant, to give a nail in His holy place, to lighten their eyes and give a little reviving in bondage. He had not forsaken them in bondage but had extended mercy in the sight of the kings of Persia to set up the house of God, to repair its desolations, and to give a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem, punishing them less than their iniquities deserved and granting such deliverance.
Forsaking the commandments commanded through the servants the prophets means joining in affinity with the people of abominations by intermarrying with the surrounding heathen peoples and mingling the holy seed with them. Priests, Levites, princes, rulers and people alike transgressed the laws given to keep Israel separate from those nations as a safeguard against apostasy. This unfaithfulness repeats, despite the lessons of the past, the very mingling practiced since the days of the fathers that largely caused the captivity, when great trespass delivered them with their kings and priests into the hand of the kings of the lands to the sword, to captivity, to spoil and to confusion of face.
The prayer confesses iniquities increased over the head and trespass grown up to the heavens, acknowledging the God of Israel as righteous while His escaped remnant stands before Him in trespass unable to stand because of it. It warns that to break the commandments again would provoke God to anger till His people were consumed with no remnant nor escaping. The verse shows Ezra humbling himself in the work of reform, confessing his own sins and the sins of his people and entreating pardon as if he himself were the offender, patiently toiling, praying and suffering together with Nehemiah.