I assembled the entire group by the canal that runs to the town of Ahava…
Spoken in the first person and from Babylone, so before Ezra 7:1.
…I gave orders for us all to fast and humble ourselves before our God and to ask him to…
I don’t fast and pray little. Please help me, Father.
When we reached Jerusalem, we rested three days. Then on the fourth day we went to the Temple, weighed the silver, the gold…
It really is important to rest before diving into the tasks at hand.
…the people, the priests, and the Levites had not kept themselves separate from the people in the neighboring countries of Ammon, Moab, and Egypt or from the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Amorites. They were doing the same disgusting things which these people did. Jewish men were marrying foreign women, and so God’s holy people had become contaminated.
Doing disgusting things = marrying foreign women = contamination! Down the road to exclusivism…
You made the emperors of Persia favor us and permit us to go on living and to rebuild…
The realization that you are no longer the center of the world.
It was raining hard, and because of the weather and the importance of the meeting everyone was trembling.
Both. 😊
Ezra the priest stood up and spoke to them. He said, “You have been faithless and have brought guilt on Israel by marrying foreign women. Now then, confess your sins to the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do what pleases him. Separate yourselves from the foreigners living in our land and get rid of your foreign wives.”
The bond of marriage is sacred (Matthew 19:5-6): in their attempts to be holier, they simply added to their sin. Zeal without knowledge (Romans 10:2).