And now for a little space there hath been favour from Jehovah our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
Ezra prays this right after owning his people's sin, and the first thing he does next is count the mercies. The verse holds two things together: a people still in slavery, and a people given a firm place, brightened eyes, and a small revival.
Ezra recites God's kindness for a reason.
Edward DennettHe has owned the sins of his brothers, and has declared God right in His ways with His people. Next he magnifies the grace that had visited them in their low state. That grace had brought them back to the land — only a remnant — and had allowed them once again to set up the house of their God. But why does he recite this proof of the Lord's grace and mercy? It was to show the character of His people's sin.
Where the ESV reads "a secure hold," older versions read "a nail." One writer reads it as God Himself fixing them in place.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe remnant through His mercy had escaped, and God had given them "a nail in His holy place" (Isaiah 22:23). Like a nail in the wall, fixed and immovable, so God had established them in Jerusalem.
Another writer reads the word differently.
F. A. HughesThe word "nail" is really "tent peg." It is a small item that looks unimportant, in a place almost out of sight. Yet how vital it is to the safety of the structure!
Either way the point stands: what God gave them was small, but it held.
The exiles were back in the land. But no king ruled again in Jerusalem, and a foreign empire still held them. God blessed them inside that situation.
J. N. DarbyThe authority and the throne at Jerusalem, with the power to appoint that went with them, were not set up again. God gave no public seal of approval. Still, God blessed the remnant of His people when they were faithful. And the main thing, the thing that should stay on our hearts, is the grace that could still bless His people — grace in the middle of such ruin, and while the throne of a foreign power stood, set up because of Israel's sin.
Ezra is not describing a slavery he has escaped. One writer notes that the next verse is better read in the present tense.
Leslie M. GrantEzra deeply appreciated the great kindness of God in the small measure of recovery He had given His people, though only a remnant. He had given them "a peg" in His holy place, a small support on which to hang their confidence. The peg was to give them enlightened eyes to see the truth of God more clearly, and some measure of reviving, though they were still in bondage. Verse 9 is rightly translated, "we are slaves." Even so, God had not forsaken them in their bondage. He had extended mercy to them in the sight of the kings of Persia. His aim was that they might at least rise in spirit above their circumstances, and have the temple of God repaired and the wall of Jerusalem rebuilt. Does this not show us that even in a sadly confined state God is able to provide grace to worship Him rightly? The temple speaks of that worship. He also gives grace to be in some true measure separate from the world, which the wall pictures.
So the reviving comes to people who are still slaves.
Ezra asks only for "a little reviving." Small numbers were nothing new for his people.
Other AuthorsIsrael began as "the fewest of all peoples" (Deut. 7:7)... In the days of the exile, God raised the spirits of some (Ezra 1:5), but the revival was very limited in scope.
One writer sees Ezra's conditions in his own day.
F. A. HughesHow our hearts long to see affections stirred in loyalty and devotion to Christ and to the truth of His Word! We do not look for spectacular movements of outward greatness. We want our prayers to mingle with Ezra's, "that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving" (Ezra 9:8). Conditions in Ezra's day were like ours in a moral sense. God's throne was no longer set up in Jerusalem. His rights were disowned, His people scattered and in captivity.
- Little. Ezra names the mercy for what it is: a remnant, a peg, a little reviving — not a full restoration.
- Fixed. The "nail" is a peg: fixed in a wall, or hidden in a tent. Either way, what God gives holds.
- Inside. The reviving comes while they are still slaves. God gives grace before He mends the ruin.
- Enough. Even in a confined state, God supplies grace for real worship (the temple) and real separation from the world (the wall).
- Convicting. Ezra recites the mercy to expose the sin. The greater the grace, the darker the sin against it.
For we are bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us before the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God and to repair the ruins thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
Ezra prays this after learning that the returned exiles had married into the surrounding nations. Instead of pleading their good record, he says plainly where they stand: still slaves because of sin, yet still receiving God's mercy.
The force of the verse turns on one small word. Some older English versions read "we were bondmen." Commentators say the sense is present: Ezra describes the day he lives in, not a chapter he has closed.
The Bible Treasury"For," he said, "we are slaves" (verse 9). The context, and even the verse itself, requires this — not "were," as some versions have it. People are quick to read it that way, forgetting God's ways and His people's sin. Not for a moment did he think the Jews of that day could do all that Moses or Joshua, David or Solomon, did in their days. He sought to do all that God's word authorised them to do in their actual circumstances. The all-important condition is a right sense of where God's people are, and a heart humbly set on obedience. It is not our own ideas and self-confidence trying to put everything right.
Persia's rule over them was not an accident of politics. Their own sin had put them there, and they were meant to keep that fact in view.
H. L. RossierThey were subjected to the nations because of their sins. They were to stay aware of their state until the glorious restoration of the people through the promised Messiah. … This is what irritated the proud spirit of the people in the days of Jesus. It made them dare to say to Him: "we have never been enslaved to anyone!" (John 8:33). The consciousness of our ruin should mark us today, as it marked the people in the days of Ezra. We cannot and should not deny it or shrug the burden off our shoulders.
God did not first remove the foreign empire that ruled them and then bless. He blessed them under it — and that, one writer says, is the thing to hold on to in the whole scene.
J. N. DarbyStill, God blessed the remnant of His people when they were faithful. The most prominent thing, the thing that should stay on our hearts, is His grace. In the middle of such ruin, and with the Gentile throne set up through Israel's sin, that grace could still bless His people — even though they acknowledged that throne, which God had established in judgment on them. Their position is clearly and touchingly stated in Ezra 9:8-9.
The mercy has two aims in the verse: the house of God repaired, and protection for Judah and Jerusalem. Older versions read that protection as "a wall." One writer takes both the house and the wall as pictures of what God still gives a small, limited people.
Leslie M. GrantVerse 9 is rightly translated, "we are slaves." Despite this, God had not forsaken them in their bondage. He had extended mercy in the sight of the kings of Persia, so that He might at least lift them in spirit above their circumstances, to have the temple of God repaired and the wall of Jerusalem rebuilt. Does this not show us that even in a sadly confined state, God can give grace to worship Him rightly? That is what the temple speaks of. He can also give grace to be separate from the world in some true measure. That is what the wall pictures.
Ezra is not comforting himself here. The next verse shows why he brought up the mercy at all.
Edward DennettBut why does he recite this proof of the Lord's grace and mercy? It was to show the character of His people's sin. He goes on, "And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments." Then he confesses that they had sinned against both light and grace. He conceals nothing and excuses nothing.
The wall in the verse was a gift and a job at once. The years after Ezra show what became of it.
H. L. RossierEzra had foreseen that rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem had to be the next step after building the temple, if the people were to continue in the spirit of the revival (Ezra 9:9). But this had not been the case. Long years passed with no sign of activity or energy. There was nothing except growing affliction and reproach.
- Slaves. The verb is present: they are still in bondage, and Ezra refuses to pretend the past is past.
- Yet. Bondage is not desertion. God's mercy reaches them under the very Persian throne He set over them in judgment.
- Reviving. The gift is not full restoration. It is breathing space — enough to lift their spirits above their circumstances.
- House and wall. The reviving has two aims: worship restored, and a real measure of separation from the world.
- Then what? Ezra recites the mercy to expose sin, not to excuse it. The unbuilt wall shows how fast a reviving can stall.