And while Ezra prayed, and made confession, weeping and falling down before the house of God, there were gathered to him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children; for the people wept very much.
Ezra had just learned that the returned exiles had married into the nations around them. He gave no orders. He broke down and prayed in front of the house of God. What happens next is one of Scripture's clearest pictures of how the grief of one man can move a whole people.
Ezra's distress shows itself in four ways at once. One writer weighs what that told the people.
The Lord used the sorrow of His servant to reach the consciences of His people. They had been guilty of breaking His commandments. Ezra's sorrow was no common sorrow. Everything here shows how intense his grief was... By his prayer, his confessions, his tears, and his falling to the ground before God, he had poured out his grief for the sins of Israel. And he did it in the open, "before the house of God." So it became known to those he had been pleading for.
Ezra confessed the sin as if it were his own. One reference work notes who else prayed that way.
It is beautiful to see how Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel confessed the sins of the people as if they had been their own. Ezra 9:1-15; Ezra 10:1; Neh. 1:6; Neh. 9:2-3; Dan. 9:4-20.
Ezra could have ordered the people to repent. One writer points to what he did instead.
Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God — not merely telling other people to do so, but doing it himself.
The crowd in this verse did not appear from nowhere. One writer traces how such a gathering grows.
We cannot stress enough how much the blessing of the people of God may depend on one or a few faithful people. Here one man humbles himself. A few then join him. And this leads to a general humbling. And once again a single man steps forward to put it into words.
Men, women and children came to Ezra. The remedy would break up their homes. So why were they weeping? One writer weighs two answers.
The people saw his great sorrow and his tears, they heard his words confessing the nation's sins. It produced a wonderful effect among the people... Was this great weeping real contrition over their disobedience? Or did they weep because they saw the coming separation from the wives they had taken? No doubt they thought of what that separation would mean for them. Yet it was an awakened conscience that produced the tears of repentance.
Some people are uneasy with strong feeling in religion. One writer meets that discomfort head on.
In verse one, we see Ezra on his knees, and as he confessed, moved by deep emotion that revealed itself in weeping. Some of us are made in such a way that we dislike anything emotional. But we must recognise this: conviction that goes deep, whether about things good or things evil, is bound to produce emotion... Paul was not a mere theologian, setting out Christian doctrine in a philosophical way. He was an eager servant of Christ, moved in his spirit by what he preached and by the needs of both saints and sinners.
The chapter is not just history. One writer turns it into a question for us.
First, like the godly among the returned remnant, let us own our failure and humble ourselves in the dust before God. Let us judge the low moral condition that has led to confusion and division. As we have seen, Ezra confessed the failure with weeping... Let us challenge ourselves! Have we ever wept before the Lord, with broken hearts, over our own failures and the failures we share?
- Grief first. Ezra's sorrow was no common sorrow. Prayer, confession, tears and falling to the ground — all four, and all in the open before the house of God.
- Grief owned. He confessed the nation's sin as if it were his own, standing with Nehemiah and Daniel in that rare habit.
- Grief lived, not ordered. He did not tell others to humble themselves; he did it himself, and the crowd gathered to him.
- Grief spreads. The blessing of God's people can hang on one or a few faithful people. One man's humbling drew a few, then the whole nation, then a single voice to speak for them all.
- Grief that feels. Deep conviction is bound to show itself in emotion. The honest question: have we ever wept over the failure we share?
And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have acted unfaithfully toward our God, and have taken foreign wives of the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing.
Ezra lies weeping in front of God's house because the returned exiles have married women from the nations around them. Then Shecaniah speaks up — first confessing the sin, then saying the damage can still be repaired.
The sin troubled nobody until Ezra arrived and took God's side against it. What followed traces back to one man's willingness to stand alone.
First, it is worth noticing how the Lord uses the faithful zeal of one person to wake others up to their condition. Before Ezra came, everyone's conscience seems to have gone numb... Ezra was alone, and he would have stayed alone if necessary, in taking God's side against the people's sin. But that took courage and a single eye, and by grace Ezra had both. God was with him in the stand he was taking, and now we see the effect. Shecaniah comes forward on behalf of the people, owns their sin, and accepts that they must submit to the Word... In times of evil, the only path of blessing is the path of faithfulness.
Shechaniah says "we," not "they." What makes that costly is the list further on in the chapter: his own father Jehiel is named among the offenders.
Shecaniah, the people's spokesman, shows an energy and selflessness here that ought to be an example to us. His father, Jehiel, was among those who had sinned (v. 26)! Only the power of God, joined to zeal, could make him set aside his own family interests and take up God's cause alone. Yet this energetic man does not try to make a name for himself in the work of restoration. He counts himself as nothing. He judges that the matter rests on Ezra, the "scribe skilled in the Law of Moses"... In his eyes, the man who carries the Word — indeed the Word itself — must play the leading part.
The hope does not rest on excusing what happened. It arrives on the far side of admitting it.
Where there is confession of failure there is hope. Shechaniah put it well: "We have trespassed against our God... yet now there is hope in Israel." I do not think he took it lightly. In fact, his father was among the 'problem cases' (verse 26). He suggests that the confession and prayer should be matched by action (v. 3) — what an encouragement for Ezra (v. 4)!
Others note that this was the only answer God gave. Ezra's prayer drew no voice from heaven, but it drew a voice from among the guilty.
Unlike so many times before, no prophet brings the answer. But God answers in the hearts of the guilty. "We have broken faith with our God," said one among them; "but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this." And they set to work with all their heart.
Ezra could not lift himself out of his grief, and the assembly wept with him. The turn came from somebody else.
His grief was such that he could not rise above it, and even the people "wept bitterly." It was a place of weeping indeed, but tears are not power. Things might have stayed that way. Then one man, Shecaniah, confessed the sin and rose in the strength of faith in God, declaring that there was still hope for Israel. So he urged Ezra to "arise... and do" — to take hold of God, to act on his prayers, and to expect God's help. He did so, and great was the reformation.
But the order runs both ways. Action without self-humbling makes the ruin worse.
Humiliation is not yet separation from evil. It is the road to that separation and prepares for it. But when the work is repairing ruin, activity without humiliation can only lead to more ruin, however zealous it is.
Shecaniah ends his proposal with an appeal to what was written. Nothing else, one writer says, reforms God's people.
Shecaniah also owns the authority of the Word. "Let it be done," he says, "according to the law."... There is, in truth, no other way of reformation among God's people.
Shecaniah's remedy was to send the foreign wives and their children away. That belonged to the law, and one writer draws a sharp line between it and the Christian's case.
Under law, as in the passage before us, the foreign wife and her children were to be sent away. But under grace the unbelieving wife is sanctified by her husband, and the children are holy... The law sent the wives and children away because they were unclean, so Israel could not receive them into the congregation... Under grace the unconverted wife is set apart through her husband. This holiness is purely external and carries no saving power, for salvation is always tied to personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even so, it gives the priceless privilege of being in the place of blessing.
- One — the recovery starts with one man willing to take God's side alone. When every other conscience has gone quiet, faithfulness is still the only path of blessing.
- We — Shecaniah says "we," not "they," though his own father is on the list of guilty men. He owns the people's sin and asks for no part for himself.
- Even now — hope does not replace confession; it comes on the far side of it: "we have broken faith... but even now there is hope."
- Do — tears are not power. Humiliation must move into action, and action without humiliation only deepens the ruin.
- Written — the standard is the Word, not the mood of the moment. That remedy itself belonged to the law; under grace God sets an unbelieving wife apart through her husband.
And now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of [my] lord, and of those that tremble at the commandments of our God; and let it be done according to the law.
Ezra had wept in front of the whole assembly over marriages that broke God's command. Shecaniah answers with a plan: make a covenant with God, send the foreign wives and their children away, and settle it by what is written.
Shecaniah speaks of hope only after he owns the guilt as his own. One writer notes what that cost him: his own father was among the guilty.
Where there is confession of failure there is hope. Shecaniah put it well: "We have broken faith with our God, but even now there is hope for Israel." I do not think he took it lightly. In fact, his father was among the "problem cases" (verse 26). He suggests that action should go with the confession and prayer (v. 3) — what an encouragement for Ezra (v. 4)!
Shecaniah asks for a covenant that would break up homes, including his father's. Another writer draws attention to what he did not ask for — a place at the front.
Shecaniah, the people's spokesman, shows energy and unselfishness that ought to be an example to us. His father, Jehiel, was among the guilty (v. 26)! It took the power of God, joined to the zeal of Phinehas, to make him give up all his own family interests. He took up God's cause alone. Still, this energetic man does not look for a place in the work of restoration. He counts himself as nothing.
The covenant Shecaniah proposes turns grief into a decision. The same writer warns that grief on its own is not enough, and that action without grief makes matters worse.
Humiliation is not yet separation from evil. It is the road to that separation and prepares for it. But when ruin has to be put right, activity without humiliation can lead to nothing but more ruin, however zealous it is. If humiliation has not judged the flesh, the flesh throws off all restraint when evil has to be put away. Such was the zeal of Jehu. This man did not carry the sin of the people as his own before God, and so, once the judgment was carried out, he was the first to go back to the golden calves at Dan and Bethel.
The last clause of the verse decides who sets the terms. Shecaniah invents no remedy of his own; he asks that the written Word settle it.
Notice too that Shecaniah owns the authority of the Word. "Let it be done," he says, "according to the Law." Ezra's mission was to restore the authority of the law over the ways of the people, if not over their hearts and consciences (Ezra 7:10), and God had now given him a helper in Shecaniah. There is truly no other way of reform among God's people.
Weakness and small numbers did not lower the standard.
This devoted and earnest servant of God did not say, "We are only a very small remnant compared with the nation before the exile, so no one can expect us to carry out what is written in God's Word." No! He valued the law of the LORD, and he wanted others to value it too.
Shecaniah's plan sent the children away as well. Commentators point out that this belonged to the law, and that grace works the other way.
Both the wives and the children born to them were to be sent away. The wives were not of Israel, so they were unclean, and the children of these mixed marriages counted as unclean too. This was under law — but under grace all of this is reversed. That does not leave a Christian free to marry someone who is not converted. But as the apostle teaches, "the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy." (1 Cor. 7:14.)
The difference matters most where one partner comes to faith after the wedding.
Under law nothing could turn a Moabite into an Israelite, but under grace an unbeliever may become a believer. This gives no permission at all for a believer to marry an unbeliever, since 2 Corinthians 6:14 plainly forbids it. But if one partner is converted after the marriage, he is encouraged to bring the grace and faith of Christianity into the marriage now, in patient testimony. It may be the means of the other's conversion.
- Confession — Shecaniah says "we," not "they." Hope follows owning the failure, not excusing it.
- Cost — his own father was among the guilty. He still pressed for the remedy, and claimed no leading place in it.
- Action — humbling before God prepares for separation from evil, but is not yet separation. Zeal without that humbling, like Jehu's, only adds to the ruin.
- Standard — "according to the Law" hands the decision back to Scripture. Weakness never lowered what God had written.
- Grace — the law sent the foreign wife and her children away. Under grace the believing partner stays, and the children count as holy.
Arise, for this matter is incumbent on thee, and we will be with thee be of good courage, and do [it].
Ezra had been weeping before God over marriages that broke Israel's separation from the nations around it. Now a man from the crowd speaks up — not with more grief, but with a plan, a promise of backing, and a push to act.
Ezra had prayed and confessed. Commentators read Shecaniah's answer as God's reply.
He urges Ezra forward. "Arise," he said; "for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it." How welcome these words must have been to Ezra's burdened heart! And no doubt he would see in them God stepping in to answer his prayers. He had indeed learned the source of all wisdom and strength. So he turned to the Lord before he tried to correct the abuses that were widespread in Israel. And so the Lord went before him, prepared the way, and inclined the people to confess and put away their sin.
Shecaniah did not pick Ezra at random. The task was his because of a choice he had made long before.
A special responsibility rested on Ezra in this matter. As we saw in the early part of Ezra 7, he had prepared his heart to seek, and do, and teach the law of the Lord. Shechaniah recognized this, so he said to him, "Arise, for it is your task." And he assured Ezra of the support of those who feared God in the action he had to take.
Shecaniah could have stayed quiet, and he could have made himself the hero.
Shecaniah, the people's spokesman, here shows an energy and unselfishness which ought to be an example to us. His father, Jehiel, was among the offenders (v. 26)! It took the power of God, joined to the zeal of Phinehas, to move him. He abandoned all his own family interests and took up the cause of God by himself. Yet this energetic man does not seek a role for himself in the work of restoration; he is of no importance in his own eyes. He judges that the thing rests on Ezra, "a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given". In his eyes, the bearer of the Word — let us say the Word itself — must play the main role.
One man's faithfulness had woken the rest.
It is worth noticing how the Lord uses the faithful zeal of one man to wake others up to their condition. Before Ezra arrived, everyone's conscience seemed dead... Ezra was alone, and alone he would be, if necessary, in taking God's side against the wrongdoing of the people. But it needed courage and a single eye, and by grace Ezra had both... In times of evil, the only path of blessing — and even of success, in its divine sense — is the path of fidelity.
Tears were the right start, but not the finish. And zeal that skips the tears only adds to the ruin.
Individual humiliation comes first, and then collective humiliation. But neither the individual nor the people of God may stop there. Action must follow humiliation... Humiliation is not yet separation from evil. It is the path to this separation and prepares it. But when ruin has to be repaired, activity without humiliation can lead only to further ruin, however zealous it may be. The flesh, unjudged in humiliation, throws off all restraint when it is a question of separation from evil. Such was the zeal of Jehu.
The effect went far beyond what one man could produce.
One cannot but be struck with the spiritual power shown by one man. The secret of it was that he was in communion with the mind of God. He stood in faithfulness for God while everyone around him was unfaithful. And so God was with His servant, and worked with him. To the outward eye, Ezra was almost alone. But the truth is, it was God and Ezra. And so the hearts of the people bowed before him.
Writers are careful about carrying the remedy straight across into the present.
Such an action certainly shows how serious the evil of sinful associations is. We must not play down how serious this is. In our day, under grace, we cannot demand that anyone put away a wife, even an unsaved one. The nations Israel was mixing with were demon worshipers, so God had completely forbidden marriage with them. Believers today are not under such a law. But Scripture does say to them, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers" (2 Cor. 6:14). If they disobey this, Scripture does not tell them to put away the unbeliever.
- Pray first. Ezra turned to God before he tried to fix anything. The Lord "went before him, prepared the way", and this verse is the answer arriving.
- Prepared first. The task belonged to Ezra because he had already set his heart to seek, do, and teach God's word.
- Then arise. Sorrow that stops at tears is not yet separation from evil. But action without humiliation "can lead only to further ruin". The word is "be strong and do it."
- Never alone. To the eye Ezra stood by himself; in fact "it was God and Ezra" — and God moved others to say, "we are with you."
Then Ezra arose, and made the chiefs of the priests, of the Levites, and of all Israel, to swear that they would do according to this word. And they swore.
Ezra had been mourning before the house of God, and Shecaniah had just told him to get up and act. Verse 5 is the turn: Ezra puts the people under oath, starting with their leaders.
Shecaniah told Ezra to arise. One writer reads that call as the moment when grief has to turn into action.
Humbling comes first, for the individual and then for the whole people of God. But neither the individual nor the people of God may stay there. Action must follow. "Arise", Shecaniah says to Ezra, "for this matter rests on you, and we will be with you. Take courage and do it" (v. 4). Being humbled is not yet separation from evil. It is the road to that separation, and it prepares it. But when ruin has to be put right, activity without humbling can only lead to further ruin, however zealous it is. If the flesh has not been judged in that humbling, it throws off all restraint as soon as separation from evil is in question.
The people had already said they would act. The oath made that promise binding — and it showed what God was doing through one man.
Ezra took the opportunity which the Lord had made for him, and he "made the leading priests and Levites and all Israel take an oath that they would do as had been said. So they took the oath." (v. 5.) In this way he bound them by a solemn oath to do what they had promised. It is striking to see such spiritual power in one man. The secret was this: he was in communion with the mind of God. He stood in faithfulness for God while everyone around him was unfaithful. So God was with His servant and worked with him. To the outward eye, Ezra was almost alone. But the truth is, it was God and Ezra, and that is how the people's hearts came to bow before him.
The oath started at the top. Ezra began with the leading priests and Levites, then took in all Israel.
On this Ezra acts. He makes them all swear to it, from the highest downward, while he himself keeps fasting and mourning (verses 5 and 6).
What they swore to was already given in writing. One writer points out that Shecaniah left the lead to the man who carried that Word instead of taking it himself.
Still, this energetic man does not seek a role for himself in the work of restoration. He is of no importance in his own eyes. He judges that the matter rests on Ezra, the "skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given". In his eyes the bearer of the Word — let us say the Word itself — must play the main part.
The oath bound them to obey what had already been given. When things have drifted, another writer argues, nothing less than the written Word will do.
Over time, and this happens in every age, people take up customs, human sayings, traditions and the like, and they neglect the written Word (see Matt. 15; 1 Tim. 4). All of these richly breed corruption, in heart and life, and in the way God's house is governed. So when people have drifted away, there is only one remedy. Apply that Word strictly — the Word that is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword — and refuse everything it condemns.
Getting the leaders to swear did not lift the burden off Ezra.
But even when the people's hearts had changed and they had decided to act, Ezra does not stop expressing his humiliation. Dishonour had come on the name of the Lord, and it still clung to that name. Until the cleansing was complete, mourning and fasting suited those who had resolved to separate themselves from evil.
- Arise. Grief over sin is the road to separation from it, not a substitute. Zeal that skips the grief only deepens the ruin.
- Swear. Ezra turns the people's spoken agreement into a solemn oath. A good intention becomes an obligation.
- From the top. The oath runs from the highest downward, beginning with the leading priests and Levites.
- According to the Word. They bound themselves to what was already written. When people drift, only the strict use of that Word puts things right — and the Word, not a strong personality, leads.
- Still fasting. Ezra keeps mourning after the oath. Mourning fits until the cleansing is complete and the dishonour no longer clings to God's name.