Ch 9 / 10~3 min
Ezra

Chapter 9

Confession and the Mercy of the Faithful Elohim

Ezra's intercessory confession on behalf of the whole nation prefigures Yeshua's priestly intercession, bearing the weight of His people's sin before a kodesh Elohim.

  1. The Crisis of Intermarriage

    Ezra discovers that many returnees have married into pagan nations. The very sin that caused exile is already creeping back in.

  2. 1Now when these things were done, the princes came near to me, saying, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations, even those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
  3. 2For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the kodesh offspring have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands. Yes, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass.”
  4. 3When I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled the hair out of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.
  5. 4Then everyone who trembled at the words of the Elohim of Israel were assembled to me because of the trespass of the exiles; and I sat confounded until the evening offering.
  6. Ezra's Prayer of Confession

    Ezra tears his clothes and prays a gut-wrenching confession before Elohim. Watch a leader who takes corporate sin personally.

  7. 5At the evening offering I rose up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn; and I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to YHWH my Elohim;
  8. 6and I said, “My Elohim, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my Elohim, for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.
  9. 7Since the days of our fathers we have been exceedingly guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
  10. 8Now for a little moment grace has been shown from YHWH our Elohim, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a stake in his kodesh place, that our Elohim may lighten our eyes, and revive us a little in our bondage.
  11. 9For we are bondservants; yet our Elohim has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended chesed to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to set up the house of our Elohim, and to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
  12. 10Now, our Elohim, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your mitzvot,
  13. 11which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land to which you go to possess is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their filthiness.
  14. 12Now therefore don’t give your daughters to their sons. Don’t take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’
  15. 13After all that has come on us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since you, our Elohim, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,
  16. 14shall we again break your mitzvot, and join ourselves with the peoples that do these abominations? Wouldn’t you be angry with us until you had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant, nor any to escape?
  17. 15YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this.”
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