Nehemiah 9:2
And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
The seed of Israel came together at Jerusalem from all the surrounding country at the time of the Feast of Trumpets, after the wall had been rebuilt and the gates set up while much of the city still lay in ruins. The aged Ezra stood on a wooden platform erected in one of the broadest streets amid reminders of departed glory, with fellow Levites at his right and left facing a vast crowd like a sea of heads. When he blessed the great God, the whole assembly answered Amen and bowed with their faces to the ground in worship.
The confession follows the reading of the book of the law and the account of its influence on the people, recounting what the Lord had done for His people while exposing their sins in turning away from Him. Before seeking God's mercy, the Israelites separated themselves from the foreigners and heathen among them. Standing before God, they confessed their own sins and the iniquities of their fathers and earlier generations.
Their confession recognized that those sins had separated Israel from God. It acknowledged that departure from Him had caused the loss of His protection, their scattering in foreign lands, and their being permitted to be brought under the control of heathen nations. Their experience demonstrates that God would not go along with them in their sins. Their leaders Ezra and Nehemiah humbled themselves in the same way, seeking pardon as though they themselves had committed the people's offenses. John expected the reading of God's law to produce the same deep repentance and return to the Lord as in the days of Ezra, and he feared his mission had failed because he did not see a similar response.